Unholy propaganda of Dr. Zakir Naik
by Suraiya Aziz
"Dr. Zakir Naik, a third graded physician in India found his best hope as a lecturer with his self-styled interpretation of Quran, which has the specific goal of generating religious hatred in the minds of the Muslims".
For past 7-8 years, an email containing statement by fanatic Islamist clergy Dr. Zakir Naik is in circulation. This email, as spam is hitting millions of computers every month, with the statement made by Sr. Naik telling Muslims that, the word Mecce stands for house of wine; the word Mosque stands for mosquito, the word Moh's stands for dog with a big mouth. This email was originally circulated by the followers of Dr. Zakir Naik 7-8 years back and now it is travelling in almost all the countries in the world. A large segment of Muslims are even misguided by the contents of this email. For that reason, I researched the topic and came to know a number of things, which possibly is important for others to know.
Let me begin with Dr. Zakir Naik's claim that the word 'Mosque' stands for mosquito in English. In fact, the word Mosque from the French means mosquee - from old French mousquaie, from old Italian moschea or moscheta, from old Spanish mezquita, from Arabic masjid, has nothing whatsoever to do with the origin of Mosquito (Spanish and Portuguese diminutive of mosca, and Latin musca, meaning fly - as in the insect. A more interesting derivative of the same root is 'musket', the weapons from which ammo flies out! In fact the 'shot' emanating from the musket shares more characteristics with the insect: it flies, buzzes, and stings!). Incidentally, Mosquito is also the name of an American Indian tribe.
Etymology of the English word 'mosque'
Question: There is a book written by a Muslim revert, Yahiya Emerick entitled "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam." The author discusses within it many things, including the etymology of the word "mosque". He wrote that this word is derived from the Spanish word for "mosquito". He claimed that the word was first used during the Christian invasion of Muslim Spain in the
15th century when the forces of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella boasted they would swat out Muslim prayer houses like so many mosquitoes. Is this true?
Answer:
This etymology is incorrect.
The Spanish word for "mosquito" is mosquito and literally means "little fly". This is a case where the English language borrowed the word directly from the Spanish.
The word for "fly" in Spanish is mosca, which is derived from the Latin musca. The diminutive suffix "-ito" is attached to it to form the word mosquito or "little fly".
The Spanish term for "mosque" is Mezquita, derived from the old Spanish mesquita. This word was most certainly derived from the Arabic word masjid, which many Arabs then and now pronounce as Masgid.
In Spain during the era of Muslim rule - and this was before the time of King Ferdinand - Spanish speakers were using the word mosquito for the insect and the word mesquita for the Muslim place of worship. The two words are not related to one another in any way.
The word "mosque" was introduced into the English language in the late 14th or early 15th century from the French. It comes from the French word mosque, from the old French word mousquaie. The French, in turn, derived the word from the Italian word moschea from moscheta. The Italians got it either directly from the Arabic word masjid or from the old Spanish mesquita.
Dr. Zakir Naik claims that the word 'Mecca' stands for House of Wine or pub. But, in reality the spelling of the name "Mecca", for most anglophones, Mecca has long been the accepted spelling for the Holy City. The word is a transliteration of the original Arabic, and has become part of the English language.
Where this claim is concerned, the word, Mecca, does not - for instance - mean house of wine! There are no such meaning/translation in any authentic Arabic, English or foreign language dictionaries.
The common usage of the word Mecca - or mecca - in English (derived from the position of Mecca among Muslims) implies 'centre' or 'important meeting point' or a place to which people of a special group flock, as in "Wimbledon is the Mecca of Tennis" and Hawaai is "the tourist mecca". Such derived usages in English are common within the Western culture. For example, the Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Cricket Law and Wisden Book of Test Cricket are often called "The Cricket Bible" and Gibbon's is called the "Bible of stamp collectors" are common similes used. Less used but seen in major writings are phrases like "The holy grail of drug addicts ..."
The word Mecca now refers to more than just the geographical location (i.e. not only the Holy City in Saudi Arabia) , and is used to describe any center of activity sought or converged upon by a group of people with a common interest. Las Vegas, for example, is sometimes described as 'the Mecca of gambling,' and 'Mecca Bingo' a division of The Rank Group Plc., which Muslims find these
out-of-context uses very offensive. There is no doubt in many minds that the insensitivity displayed in the naming of the fairly old chain known as Mecca Dancing Clubs (a very popular series of dance halls that may also house drinking areas in the UK) was not entirely an act of naive usage of language.
Mecca is also used in the names of two towns in the USA, a soft drink and two acronyms:
a. Mecca, California, a town in Riverside County, California, USA.
b. Mecca, Indiana, a town in Parke County, Indiana, USA.
c. Mecca-Cola a cola-flavoured carbonated beverage
d. MECCA is also the acronym for Model Evaluation Consortium for Climate
Assessment and Missile Environment Computer Control Analysis that I know of ... and there are bound to be others.
It may be mentioned here that, Mecca-Cola was launched in France, in November 2002, by entrepreneur Tawfik Mathlouthi, as a means of aiding Palestinians by tapping into demand for alternative products in European countries. He had been inspired by a similar Iranian product, Zam Zam Cola, which was already successful in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and in fact only decided to launch his own brand when he was unable to agree on terms for a distribution contract with Zam Zam. Mecca-Cola in turn inspired the creation of Qibla Cola in the United Kingdom.
If Mecca means "wine house," why was there no public condemnation from the Saudi Arabian government when anglophones first started using the word "Mecca" - for example when the British explorer Sir Richard Burton in 1853 disguised himself as an Afghan Muslim to visit and write his "Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca?" (Whisky house? How utterly absurd!)
However, in an effort to distinguish between the metaphorical and official references to the holy site, the Saudi Arabian government in the 1980s began promoting a new transliteration, 'Makkah al-Mukarramah'), which is closer to the original Arabic. While this new usage has been officially adopted by the U.S. Department of State: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3584.htm, its spread is still incipient among anglophones at large.
As for this other concocted description that the short form name "Mohd" for Muhammad stands for "A dog which has a big mouth" - it could not be found of any Islamic information to support this most absurd claim. Surprisingly nor could anyone find any refutation from any of the scholars.
Mohd is a non-word (the combination of letters has no possible base in any of the Western Romance languages and gives away the inventor's illiteracy). What I think is, the people who 'invented' this definition - or, at least, gave currency to this via email, to create alarm - is more guilty of 'blasphemy' than those he or she deceptively accuses. Googling this in dictionaries or thesauri will not offer up any such word, I assure you.
These claims are nothing more than a deliberate fundamentalist prank preying upon bristling Muslim senitivities to further divide the growing chasm proposed (and engineered, in some ways) by those who created and supported the so-called 'clash of civilization' theories. That this is not considered by the Muslims who believe in such faked information and copy, paste and forward it here, there and everywhere used to amaze me ... but nothing about anyone leaning towards the right path does that any more. Muslims are responsible for checking and setting things straight - by what they say, read, write and transmit.
Now finally the question is, as to why Dr. Zakir Naik deliberately initiated the circulation of this email through his followers, which actually contains completely false information, which would only misguide the Muslims? The answer is simple! Dr. Zakir Naik, a third graded physician in India found his best hope as a lecturer with his self-styled interpretation of Quran, which has the specific goal of generating religious hatred in the minds of the Muslims. Dr. Naik gave direct support to Al Qaeda and Jihad in a number of his speeches, which are regularly put on air through his Jihadist Media Conglomerate named Peace TV and Islam Research Foundation. It is learnt from numerous sources that, Zakir Naik receives roughly US$ 35-40 millions from donors in the Middle East and the world, who are willing to see growth in Peace TV and IRF activities. With such huge flow of cash, Dr. Zakir Naik has reached millions of television viewers by making separate language segments of his Peace TV. In today's world, Dr. Zakir Naik is considered to be one of the top ranking most influential fanatic clergies in the world. He has personal access to most of the Arab rulers as well as filthily rich Oil Sheikhs. In addition to donation that Zakir Naik's Islamist conglomerate receives every year, he also is making a personal earning of roughly US$ 6 million by giving lectures in various parts of the world. He appears in approximate 100-150 lectures as invited guest and is paid between US$ 30-40 thousand for each of such lectures. He also earns significant amount of money as royalty from sale of his books, which also are published in numerous languages.
Courtesy: Blitz
