Arabic names are written in Arabic script. Transliterating names into the Roman alphabet therefore requires judgment. There is no such thing as a "correct" spelling of Arabic—origin words. Just more and less widely—used transliterations.

Until today, The American Thinker used the most commonly—employed spelling for the terror group headed by Nasrallah and funded by Iran. That is "Hezbollah."

But, in fact, the name means "party of god" and includes the name of Islam's deity, Allah. Therefore, to connote more accurately the real essence of the name, we are henceforth standardizing the spelling "Hiz b'allah" for the group. Of course, when excerpting material written by others, we will retain whatever spelling the original authors employed.

Although it is slightly more work to employ the space bar and an apostrophe, we think the effort is justified. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion which might result from this change. But we think it important for readers to be aware of the real nature of the group's claim to represent their god's will.

Thomas Lifson, editor