Propaganda and Allah

[Douglas G. Wilson]

> > 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.

This may indeed be the answer in large degree, at least historically. On
the other hand, the God of Islam is often referred to as "God" in English
(by Christians and others) in my experience ... as is the God of Judaism.

Of course there are millions of Christian Arabs -- many in the US, even.
Christian Arabs refer to the Christian God in Arabic as "Allah", AFAIK. On
the Web are several Christian Bibles in Arabic, and at a glance they seem
to say "Allah". [Anyone fluent in Arabic, please correct me if necessary.]
So I think one can reasonably consider Arabic "Allah" to exactly = English
"God" (= Russian "Bog", = German "Gott", etc.) in most contexts.

Consider a place such as Ramallah, on the West Bank just north of Jerusalem
-- I think a mostly Christian town for centuries, now mixed
Christian/Moslem. The inhabitants -- I think -- speak virtually the same
local Arabic without religious distinction ... and I believe the Moslems
and Christians have mostly coexisted more or less harmoniously there. I
suppose that they all call God "Allah" even when referring to the religious
activities/beliefs of those of different religions: certainly Palestinians
of both religions say "God" in English in my limited experience.

One difference might be that Islam still carries its language -- Arabic --
with it to large degree while Christianity no longer carries a specific
language (although in some places and times of course it has come packaged
with Latin, Spanish, English, etc.).

>It turns out that Buddha is a saint in both
>the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, under the name of "Josephat".

A very interesting point of which I had been ignorant. It seems that Jesus
has been adopted in similar altered form in Asian "pantheons". It has been
claimed that the 'Buddhist' figure Kwan-yin (Guan Yin, Kannon) is not only
analogous to but actually partly derived from the Christian Mary.

As always, I deny intending any theological point here; nor am I stating
anything about my own religious opinions.

-- Doug Wilson