What makes the Left’s pronunciation of “Islam” and “Muslim” even more noteworthy is that they are swimming against the stream of how we pronounce borrowed words. When a word is occasionally borrowed from one language into another, it may retain the pronunciation of the original language, but generally the pronunciation is adapted to fit with the phonetic system of the receiving language. Trust me, no one in America is pronouncing the phrase “hors d’oeuvres” like a native French speaker. This is the way with borrowing words from other languages.

The Left is refusing to make that adaptation when it comes to “Islam” and “Muslim.” We’ve all heard people do this with various words. Someone is talking about the summer they spent in Spain and they pronounce the city names with a Spanish accent. They’re trying to sound authentic and in the know, but they mostly just come off as arrogant and braggadocios.

In this case, the Left is intentionally pronouncing these two words like native Arabic speakers to demonstrate not just authenticity, but also their cultural sensitivity. They’re doing this as a sign of being part of a particular group with a particular ideology when it comes to Islam.