I will lift up my eyes to the hills-
from whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord
Who made heaven and earth.
(Psalm 121:1, 2)

Face of Man

Face of Man
Jacqueline du Pre

Sunday, December 13, 2009

What's in a name, Bishop?

"The Bishop of Breda, Tiny Muskens, wants people to start calling God Allah. He says the Netherlands should look to Indonesia, where the Christian churches already pray to Allah. It is also common in the Arab world: Christian and Muslim Arabs use the words God and Allah interchangeably."
Christian Arabs use the word Allah because it means God in their language.Christianity being older religion than Islam, it is obvious that Christian Arab used that word long before the Muslims. However, that does not make the word "allah" more appropriate name for God than the word "god". Bishop Musken,if you want to call Him Allah or Ishwar or Bhagwan or Laininghtou,or whatever, that's fine by me.Just don't expect me to follow your lead. And don't you be coming around with a proposal like "let's all celebrate mass in Arabic". I like to pray to God in a language that I speak. I like to listen to sermon preached in a language that I understand. I believe that God is the giver of all tongues. So, naturally,He speaks all languages. But I, on the other hand, understand and speak only one or two. So, when I call upon His holy name "God" He can surely hear me just as well as He can hear you call upon Him in Arabic. By the way, I, at times, feel that Islam is a vehicle for Arab hegemony.

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