Israel: Muhammad most popular name for newborns in 2014
(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV - Muhammad was the most popular name given to infants born in Israel over the past 12 months, reported the Walla website on Monday.
The Israeli Population and Immigration Authority had released a list on Sunday that instead included only Jewish names: Yosef, Daniel, Uri, Yitai and Omer.
Walla noted that the registry office had simply omitted clearly Arab names. Mohammad was actually the top name and Ahmed in tenth, ahead of the typically Jewish name David. The spokesperson for the office said that it had been a misunderstanding. Its list, she said, referred exclusively to Jewish names and did not intend to skew the facts. A number of Israeli Arab MPs doubt that it was the result of a simple mistake.
''This is a disgrace,'' said Jamal Zehalke from the secular, nationalist party Balad. The communist Afu Ighbarye decried rampant 'racism' in Israel, calling on those supporting democracy in Israel to rebel. (ANSAmed).
