Seemingly, everyone from here to Cairo has had an opinion on Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, those two Egyptian-national, former USF students arrested in South Carolina last year – and what they might have been up to. Recall that there was weird stuff in the trunk of their car and on a laptop and on YouTube. And they picked a downright curious place for some ad hoc sightseeing.
Here’s hoping, however, they ultimately are guilty of nothing more than colossal naiveté and post-9/11 cluelessness.
But what is evident is that, by and large, local electronic media haven’t distinguished themselves by not even bothering to pronounce Megahed’s name correctly. Most local broadcasters kissed it off as “Mega-head.” It doesn’t take a linguist to sense that “Mega-head” was probably not correct. It just didn’t sound right. Sami al-Arian was a lot easier.
So I called the Islamic Community of Tampa the other day and asked. Sure enough, the correct pronunciation is Me-GAH-hed. The woman on the other end seemed surprised — and grateful — that I had asked.
The point, minor to many no doubt, is two-fold. Broadcasters typically have phonetic helpers for foreign or difficult-sounding names or terms. It’s what you do if you’re in that business. To get it wrong consistently is just not professional – nor worthy of a media market this size. Especially in a prominent story with lots of legs. Around here, ethnic mispronunciations are more typically reserved for Hispanic names more challenging than Gonzalez or Martinez.
The other point is that it is culturally ignorant. It just is. And that’s not to be confused with political correctness and Muslims. It’s a form of disrespect. It just is.