Shoutin' Across the Pacific asks why most newspeople don't refer to Jose Padilla as Abdullah al Muhajir. I don't think it's a "good Muslim/bad Muslim" thing. There are two legitimate reasons why his birth name should be preferred. One is that it is his legal name, in the United States anyway. The second is that everyone used Johnny Lindh's given name (including me) and consistency argues you do the same here. I've mostly used the latter myself, but will probably switch to the former for consistency's sake. (In fact, like Johnny the Rat, Padilla has used several different names in his life.)

If you ask why we don't do the same for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Muhammad Ali, it's simple -- time. When Ali changed his name it took a very long time for most people to stop calling him Cassius Clay, but that was forty years ago. It didn't take as long, but there was an adjustment for Kareem as well. Also, those are their legal names.