Might Europe's Muslims Hide Their Identity?

Submitted by Paul (United States), Dec 31, 2007 at 15:22

There are many Jews in the US with ostensibly non-Jewish names such as Brittany, Harrison, Walter Colleen etc. These are for given names. The same happens with family names. Many Jewish familes have changed their original names ... In some cases this was to hide their Jewish origins. So we have names such as Wolfgang Grajonca becoming Billy Graham, Other times names became changed due to mistakes made by immigration officers. Other times, names were changed to make them more "American" As illustrated by the joke:

Yehudah Tzvi Windweher arrived at Ellis Island and asked his friend "What would be a good American name for me? I want it to be Jewish, but more American."
His friend replied "Sam Cohen, that's a good American Jewish name."
Yehudah Tzvi began his long walk up a massive flight of steps leading to the immigration office. With each step he said "Sam Cohen, Sam Cohen", in an earnest effort to learn his new name.
When he finished carrying his luggage to the top of the flight, he was winded and tired. A large immigration officer caugh Yehuda Tzvi off guard when he
said "NAME?" in a booming voice.
A flustered Yehudah Tzvi replied "shoyn fargesin" ("I already forgot" in Yiddish).
The immigration officer replied "Sean Ferguson, welcome the United States of America!".

In short, I don't think that a name change necessarily implies an evil motive.

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