By Sean Osborne
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
(Editor's note: As Associate Director, Military Affairs, Northeast Intelligence Network and Canada Free Press columnist Sean Osborne says, "Why don't we just get back to calling God by the name Jesus Christ said we should use..."Father"?
Originally posted on foehammer.net
I wonder how many of you have heard of this. I hope you understand the implications and why it is not just coincidence that the suggestion to call God "Allah" comes from a Catholic Bishop from the Netherlands. Intimidation and murder have obviously done the job for the Islamic jihadists that were behind the stabbing death of film maker Theo van Gogh. Just as I have warned over and over again here at the Anvil that the Islamists have nothing but time on their hands to erode our will as long as Muslims live among us and prosper, this suggestion of further dhimmitude comes like a warning flare out of the darkness of ignorance.
Report from Kathleen Parker at the Kansas City Star:
It was bound to happen -- and it seems fitting that a cleric named Tiny would think of it.
Roman Catholic Bishop Tiny Muskens of the Netherlands has decided that the way to ease Muslim-Everybody Else tensions is to start using "Allah" instead of "God." Noting that God does not care what we call him, Muskens thought, why not yield a little to Muslim ways?
Or would that be submit, the literal meaning of "Islam"?
"'Allah' is a very beautiful word for God," Muskens said on Dutch television. "Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will name God 'Allah'?"
Muskens pointed out that in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country where he spent eight years, priests use the word "Allah" in Catholic Mass.
For the sake of peace, prosperity and clarity in the shire, let the record reflect that Muslims did not ask for this, though some in the Netherlands embraced the idea as a conciliatory gesture, and in the United States, some Muslims greeted the suggestion with enthusiasm.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Fox News.com that calling God "Allah" wouldn't require a theological leap for Christians. "It reinforces the fact that Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship the same God," Hooper said.
Besides, as Muskens pointed out, "Allah" is a lovely sounding word. Thus, in the spirit of Christian charity and Western tolerance, I've been trying it out with mixed results.
The Doxology of my Protestant childhood is problematic with the two-syllable Allah instead of the monosyllabic God, but not impossible: Praise Allah, from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Not perfect, but workable.
America's familiar childhood blessing is downright euphonious: Allah is great, Allah is good, let us thank him for our food. But the Apostle's Creed is a mess: I believe in Allah the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son … . Oops.
Contrary to Hooper's one-God claim, Christians and Muslims don't really worship the same God. Although both religions are monotheistic -- and if there's just one God, there's just one God -- Christians believe Jesus was the Son of God and Muslims think otherwise. That's not a small doctrinal difference. In fact, at the risk of exhausting the obvious, Christianity doesn't exist without, um, Christ.
Changing Western language, symbols and making other accommodations to ease relations between old Europe and new isn't only a conciliatory gesture or even mere appeasement. It is submission by any other name.
Language may be a manmade limitation, as Janaan Hashim said, speaking for the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, which endorses Muskens' idea. But language is not meaningless.
Muskens conceded that his idea likely wouldn't catch on right away. We might need another 100 years or so, but he predicted that, eventually, "Allah" will be the word. Given that European Muslims are procreating at three times the rate of non-Muslims, it may be sooner than that. Peace be upon us.
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