Should we call God Allah?

Question

A Roman Catholic Priest from the Netherlands has proposed that all Christian services use the word Allah instead of God in their services. He says this willl help ease tension with the 1 million muslims in the Netherlands. God does not care what name we call him, according to the priest, and peace is most important.

IS this just another surrender of the west? Are our traditions less important than peace?

Some good answers. Beth, you truly frighten me. Is nothing worth fighting for? I'm guessing you're a Democrat...

Answer 1

MMMMmmmmm let me think, Nope!

Answer 2

Call it what you want. In my humble opinion the priest is right in the sense that peace is important and God/Allah/the creator does not care what you call it.

I also believe that peace is more important than the traditions of western religion. I'm not however convinced that changing what you call the thing you worship is going to bring peace.

Also the god in the old testament is the same god as in the new testament is the same god as in the koran historically speaking. Allah means god and some people worship a god different than the god in those three books, but those three books talk about the same god.

Answer 3

Well the Jews never say G-d's name and the Jehovah'sh's ,Witness say Jehova.
I say Creator , Father, Lord---- Oh my we could get into a real quandary here .

Good grief ---ENOUGH already --with this politically correct crap !
Has the world gone completely nuts.!!!!

We must all live by the rules of Faith that we have chosen.
CHOSEN -not had crammed down our throats !

If "God doesn't care what we call Him," then why should a Muslim care how I refer to our Creator.
It seems to me that there are religious sects/groups all over the world that will not be 100% happy untill the rest of the world believes exactly as they do or -are dead.

I have no imidiate plans to change anything about how I believe or name my Creator ---
That is unless I recieve a direct order from Him !!!

Answer 4

Surely its a language issue! God is Allah is Yawah is Father. Christains call God Allah in some prayers anyway. This is not about words - it is about religious interpretation. The Christain God does not call for the killing of those that do not believe - it is a fundamental contradiction of that religion. The sad thing is many many musllims would agree that Allah does not want that either - just some who use it to try and force their way of life on others. Any reilgious person or any decent good human being knows that to kill is wrong.

Answer 5

Allah is just the Arabic word for god. It would be like using the word Deus, which is Latin for god.

I'm not sure if using the word Allah would be a good idea, though. If you did, then the priests would say things like "Jesus is the son of Allah" or "Allah the Father, Allah the Son, and Allah the Holy Spirit". I think hearing people saying these phrases using the word "Allah" would probably upset Muslims more than if it was said using the word "God".

Also, if people got into the habit swearing using "Allah" where they would normally say "God", (ie "God d@mn it!" -> "Allah d@mn it!"), then you would definitely be making things worse,

According to Wikipedia, Arabic speaking Christians actually do use the word Allah for God.

One other thing to take note of: Both Sunni and Shiite Muslims use the word Allah to refer to God, however, this fact does not seem to keep them from killing each other. So, simply using the word Allah is definitely not going to miraculously bring peace and understanding.

Answer 6

properly, if a Christian is conversing English and calls God Allah, then it does not make an incredible style of expertise because Allah merely potential god. that is comparable to me conversing in English and then calling God Dios that's the be conscious in Spanish. i think of that believers in God have greater to rigidity approximately.

Answer 7

I"ve been raised calling him God and will go on calling him God. As far as I'm concerned, it does not matter what someone calls him. He is the Creator, God, Allah, Great Spirit and so on. What does it really matter in the long run?

No priest is going to tell me what to call him by the way. I deal with God one-on-one, not some human with the same weaknesses as I have. He's no better than any of us. Sorry, sore spot with me.

Answer 8

Yes our traditions are so much less important than peace! Everything is less important than peace! And it's true, any name we've ever had for God has been designated by man. We're all praying to different versions of the same god. Call God whatever the heck you want to, the man was just posing a possible solution.

Answer 9

That is ridiculous. The Christian God and Allah are two very different entities.
The Roman Catholic Priest you spoke of must be in a lot of trouble with the vatican right about now. And yes "Allah" does mean "god" in arabic, according to Wikipedia, but the meaning attached to it in Muslim and Christian faiths are very different.
Check out this website.

Answer 10

Does Allah mean God in Arabic?
I don't see what the big deal is. If it eases tension then I am all for it. Let's take it a step at a time.
I definitely think our traditions are less important than peace.
I didn't even have to think about it.

Answer 11

according to the things i have read , allah is the arabic word for god . it is used by jews , christians , and muslims in the arabic world . it also refers to a pagan arabic god before Mohammad , much in the same sense that we refer to zeus as a god . though i suppose it would not be technically incorrect for us to refer to our lord as allah , i would question why we would choose to speak arabic as opposed to our own language . just as rose is a rose by any other name , the god of abraham is god regardless of the language that you speak . this sounds like political correctness as opposed to any religious clarification.