Is it USAMA or OSAMA?

[Tripper11]

Why is it the only station that I notice spelling it Usama is Faux.
And everyone else spells it Osama? Which is actually correct and why?

[SlavesandBulldozers]

1. tell Fox

it's spelled "Yomama". I believe both spellings are correct, I believe the "O" in Osama is an English translationary thing, and the actual name in Arabic is with a U.

[demnan]

2. I don't think there's a right or wrong

according to a friend who works in intelligence, the CIA calls him UBL and so do the Europeans where as many here call him OBL.

[BurtWorm]

3. Is WHAT Usama or Osama?

;) Actually, I've seen Usama used in British papers. Maybe it's an Australian thing, too?

[MattNC]

4. it's USAMA

n/t

[Tripper11]

5. In other words...

let's keep the "USA" in Usama? :evilgrin:

[Loonman]

6. Either one works

Like how Moammar's name can be spelled Kadaffi, Kadafy, or Qodaffi and all spellings are correct.

[Caution]

7. Neither...and both...

This is simply an attempt to spell the name in something other than arabic. The FBI uses Usama which is probably why Fox uses it. However, by pronunciation, according to the only person i know who speaks arabic, Osama is closer.

[jobycom]

8. There is a standard for transliteration from Arabic to English

The letters are different, obviously, and many sounds in both languages are not perfectly mimiced in the other. On top of that, often the beginning vowel sound alters depending on the end sound of the word that came before it, as well as because of dialects and individual speakers

I think U is the current concensus, but I'm not sure. I studied a figure in grad school named Usama (ibn Munqidh), and the earlier texts used O while the later used U.

Neither is precise. The sounds are different. It's just an attempt to transliterate one language into another.

[XNASA]

9. U-S-A!!! U-S-A!!! U-S-A!!!!

Like any God-fearing patriotic American, I'm spelling is Usama until Jeebus manifests himself as a talking apple pie and tells me otherwise.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

10. His name as he writes it is: Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin

Here is part of a document that was released in 1998:

Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders
World Islamic Front Statement

23 February 1998

Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin
Ayman al-Zawahiri, amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt
Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group
Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan
Fazlur Rahman, amir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh


Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book: "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said: I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped, Allah who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders.
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm

If you read the document, you will also notcie that there is no mention of "Al Qaeda".

In reality Bin-Ladin's group is called the "World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders"

"Al Qaeda" was actually the name of a CIA funded, Bin-Ladin run, camp that was used as an inprocessing and outprocessing centre for Arabs who were joining the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan.

Now, if you read further down in that document, you will see something very interesting. Remember this was released in 1998:

No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone:

First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.

If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless.

Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.

So here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.

Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula.
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm

Judging by this statement, the Sept 11 attack (if indeed it was carried out by Bin-Ladin's group) was a direct result of the US occupation of Saudi Arabia and the attacks on Iraq.

But of course, they hate the US for its freedoms, don't you know.

[m-jean03]

11. ORANGE ALERT! Satsuma bin Laden

When those little holiday oranges start falling out of their overfilled bin in the produce aisle...