If I hear this argument one more fucking time I'm going to rip someone's head off. They are NOT the same, Allah was a figment of Mohammed's imagination used to brainwash his followers into fighting for him.....
Allah means God.
In Arabic, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians all pray to Allah. In English, however, Christians and Jews pray to God, and Allah is the Muslim deity. No one would think of using the word "Allah" to talk about any other religion. The two words, "God" and "Allah," do not mean the same thing in English. They should.
God, however, is a big deal. The word for God matters quite a bit more than what lands on one's table for dinner at night. We never say the French pray to Dieu, or Mexicans pray to Dios. Having Allah be different from God implies that Muslims pray to a special deity. It classifies Muslims as the Other. Separating Allah from God, we only see a vengeful, alarming deity, one responsible for those frightful fatwas and ghastly jihads -- rarely the compassionate God. The opening line of every chapter in the Koran is "Bi Ism Allah, Al Rahman, Al Rahim": In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. In the name of Allah. One and the same.
The separation is happening on all sides. This year, the Malaysian government issued an edict warning the Herald, a weekly English newspaper, that no religion except Islam can use the word Allah to denote God. No such edict, or fatwa for that matter, is needed for the New York Times: a quick search through the archives shows that Allah is used only as the Muslim God.In these troubled times, creating more differences, further parsing so to speak, is troubling, even dangerous. I suggest we either not use the word Allah or, better yet, use it in a non-Muslim context.
Otherwise, the terrorists win.
One nation under Allah?
ZIP
Just to inject some real theology into this issue, that Moslem 'blessing' about "allah" (the moon god of Mo's tribe) being "All Merciful", which this report incorrectly states precedes every chapter (sura) of the Koran, does NOT precede Suras 8 ("Booty") and 9 ("Ultimatum") because these are the two suras which deal with how Moslems are ordered by "allah" to treat all non-Moslems and "allah" does not wish there to be any mercy shown to the non-Moslems: (Koran 8:67 - "It is not for any prophet to have captives until he hath made slaughter in the land" and 8:12- "I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore, strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.") Sura 9 is the one which contains the Ayat-al-Sayf (Verse of the Sword) which abrogates earlier verses and takes precedence as calling for the forced conversion, subjugation as dhimmies, or deaths of all non-Moslems. (Koran 9.5: "Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war" and 9.29: "Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the Jizyah in submission" and 8.39: "So fight them until there is no more Fitnah and all submit to the religion of Allah alone in the whole world.")
Posted by: Merrimac | April 06, 2008 at 05:09 PM
Christians In the ME refer to God as allah due to proximity to muslims, It just rubbed off on them , I believe allah Is traditionally muslim.
I have never heard of Jews calling him allah only G_D.
Being Italian Catholic I have called him Dio and the French and Spanish versions are similiarly acceptable, allah In my opinion Is not acceptable because allah means death and darkness 7th century bullshit ...Cant possibly be the same God, No fuckin way !
Posted by: sheepdog | April 06, 2008 at 07:51 PM
Amen sheepdog.....
Posted by: ZIP | April 06, 2008 at 07:55 PM
I worship Dio too. I even got to see him in concert twice. :-)
Posted by: Elric66 | April 06, 2008 at 08:08 PM