Propaganda and Allah

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 10/19/2001 1:56:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
wh5mith at MINDSPRING.COM writes:

> does anyone know why we say "Allah"
>  instead of translating it to "God"?  Perhaps it is grey propaganda.

The answer is simple: Christianity is not a syncretic religion.  That is,
Christianity refuses to (knowingly) accept any elements from other religions
and, in theory at least, considers all other religions (except possibly its
parent religion Judaism) as false.  This is not to say that Christians are
necessarily intolerant, but to a Christian any non-Christian religion or
philosophy, though perhaps worthy of respect, is something alien.

Hence a Christian considers Islam to be alien.  A Christian might cheerfully
recognize ideas in which Islam and Christianity agree, but will not accept
any crossover of ideas from Islam into Christianity.  Since no crossover is
allowed, then trying to identify the Moslem's Allah with the Christian God
(or if you prefer with the Trinity) is a pointless exercise.  Therefore it
makes sense for a Christian to refer to the Deity of Islam by the name the
Moslems use, namely "Allah".

(Note that I said "knowingly."  It turns out that Buddha is a saint in both
the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, under the name of "Josephat".)

Now turn the situation around.  Islam, although it accepted the traditions
written down in the Old and New Testaments, is not a syncretic religion
either.  A Moslem might well cheerfully point out ideas n which Islam and
Christianity agree, but will not accept any crossover of ideas from
Christianity into Islam.  I do not happen to know how Moslems refer to the
Christian God, but I seriously doubt they refer to the Christian Deity by the
name "Allah."

Judaism is also not syncretic, as even a casual reading of the Old Testament
will show.  For convenience English-speaking Jews use the terms "God" and
"Lord" but it is difficult to imagine a Jew using one of the Hebrew terms for
the Deity when referring to the Christian Deity.

You don't have to turn to Islam for examples of alien deities not being
accepted as the Christian Deity.  Several Native American nations have either
a monotheistic Deity, or a chief Deity who so outranks other gods that the
pantheon resembles the Christian Deity plus the angels.  This Deity is
generally referred to in English as "the Great Spirit", though rarely if ever
as "God."  (According to OED2, "Great Spirit" is a translation of the Ojibway
"Kitchi Manitou", with similar terms appearing in many Algonquin languages.)

      - Jim Landau