Orwell Plays Ball

I once (pre-September 11) tried to enter a basketball team in a local competition under the name "The Shi'ite Fanatics". A few days after submitting the form, I got a call from the administration asking me to change the name. On asking why this was necessary I was informed that I wasn't allowed to use obscene language in the team name. Puzzled, I was informed that the word "shite" was unacceptable. I apologised for the misunderstanding and emphasised the apostrophe and additional "i" in the word, and explained how it should be pronounced. This met with a moment of silence, whereupon I was asked what the word meant. I asked whether this quiz was mandatory for all the teams. Well no, but in this case… and so I explained that the expression "Shi'ite Fanatics" was commonly used in the media to label extreme and militant Islamic groups (whether or not they are actually Shi'ite Muslims seems to be unimportant). After some consideration the adminstrator still felt the name remained unacceptable, but couldn't really justify why I should be forced to change it, apart from quibbling that it was long, and the other teams weren't going to understand it. And so I caved, and that season we were merely called "The Fanatics". I remembered that story today; maybe I'll try to enter my current team as the Shi'ite Fanatics in the next competition, now that I'm in a different city…