Infidel
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Comment by Greg Carr on August 21st, 2017 at 9:24 pm
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Infidel
Whoever wrote that article is completely wrong. The word Infidel is a Latin word, and saying “Historically, the term has been used by Christians and Muslims to describe those outside their religious group.” Is flat-out false, incorrect, and offensive to Muslims. That’s like saying black people “historically used the N-word to describe races outside their religious group,” as if they originated the word when it in fact was originated to dehumanize *them.* Please update your article. Muslims do not “historically” speak Latin, what an asburdity. It’s a word of purely Christian origin and very lately in terms of history have Westerners began to translate the Arabic word “kaffir” to “Infidel,” when it really means simply “unbeliever” or “coverer of the truth.”
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on August 22nd, 2017 at 11:08 am
Thank you, Greg, for your comment. Indeed, that paragraph is problematic. You are quite correct that the term comes from Latin, and was used by Christians. The Islamic use should be clarified as a translation of the Arabic word “kafir.” The text will be revised to clarify these points. Thank you again for taking the time to help make New World Encyclopedia a valuable information resource.
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