How do you spell the evilest, vilest, puppykickingest organization known to contemporary mankind?
Also, how do you pronounce it?
Me:
Spell - Al Qaida
Pronounce - ahl kuydah
You misspelled Republican.
I figure I’d go ahead and beat someone to the punch. 
I spell it Al Qaeda, because I’ve seen it that way in the media. How do they spell it? I suppose they use the arabic symbols.
I say it Al Ki-da.
Al Qaeda
Al-Kay-Da
Al Qaida
Al Ka(short pause)-(I sound like “in”)-duh
I’ve only seen Al Qaeda. I have no problem saying All KYE-duh when I hear about it, but, when I see it, I always think al KAY-duh. I find it odd to anglicize the spelling to one that doesn’t follow English pronunciation rules. As far as I can tell, it’s not even Al KAHeh-duh, which would justify using an E instead of at least an I.
You left off Al Gore
القاعدة
ALQA"DE
The Q is pronounced very far in the back of the throat–you almost swallow it
The " also originates in the back of the throat and resembles a vocalized strangle
Obviously, neither sound is present in most European-based languages so we don’t have easily recognized symbols for them. For that reason you get different spellings based either on how you heard a native say it or a non-Arab say it.
Same reason there are a hundred different ways to spell the Lybian heffe’s name. And it doesn’t help that the Q is pronounced as stated above or as a G (as in goat-herder) depending on the local dialect.
S-h-a-r-p-t-o-n
Thanks for posting this and explaining. I think Arabic is such a beautiful language.
Well, I won’t argue aesthetics with you, but mechanically it is quite fascinating.