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Because transliteration (the conversion of words from one alphabet to another) is inexact, particularly in the case of Arabic. As I understand it, Arabic words are written without vowels; vowels are inferred from context. (I can't read Arabic, so I could be wrong about this.) Also, there are a couple consonants in Arabic that can't be represented in the English alphabet. The short answer is that most Arabic words have multiple transliterations into English, particularly in the case of names. For example, Ahmed, Akmed and Achmed are all common English spellings of the same name. Lawrence of Arabia mentioned this in his book. As I recall, there's a whole page about transliteration in the forward of the book. Lawrence basically says that he didn't bother trying to keep the spelling of arabic words consistent in his book because it was too much trouble. I recall a few years ago that Muammar Qaddafi's name was commonly spelled with a "K" instead of a "Q". Then he sent someone a letter in English that had the "Q" spelling, so all the newspapers changed the way they spelled his name.
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