Misspellings And Homeland Security

عبد المطلب‎

I have seen and heard it said that Mr. Abdulmuttalib from Nigeria was not hindered in flying into the USA because of an error in spelling his name.

( ...pause... )

OK.
I have seen the name spelled a lot of different ways, so at Sunday January 10, 2010, there was no obvious way to spell his name that everyone agreed one. This morning I saw "mutallab".

First, it is probably  " muttalib" using the emphatic "t", derived from the eighth form of the Arabic verb: 'ittalaba. Precisely, it is the present participle of that verb form.
This is the name of the Prophet's [saw] grandfather, Abdulmuttalib:   عبد المطلب‎

"abdulmuttalab" is the past participle, and doesn't seem likely, and no one uses it that I've seen.
"adulmutallab" - mentioned above - is the past participle of the second verb form, and
"abdulmutallib" is the present participle of the second form.

Again, the most likely form - to me - is the name of the grandfather of the Prophet [saw] : Abdulmuttalib.

The root verb is Talaba, the same root that gives us Taliban, and has the notion of search, quest, seek earnestly, learn, to be a student of. The second form, tallaba, is an intensive form, meaning to search, seek assiduously.
The eighth form is not common, but would probably have the idea of a large scale quest, or a polymathic study...I can't really locate a use of the eighth form!- other than in the proper name Muttalib. And there is no other way to get that double "t" unless it is the present participle of 'ittalaba,  where the two types of "t" come togther and become a doubled emphatic "t".

So please do not - repeat: do not - say that anything at all was due to the inability to spell the darn name, because you are going to have to find a way around that problem; it is going to be months before the media comes to grips with one spelling; we can't interview everyone's family to determine how to spell their name.