Propaganda and Allah

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 10/22/01 1:51:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM writes:

> can anyone confirm or
>  deny?:
>   1. "Allah" is formed from the definite article "al-" plus the pre-Islamic
>  word for 'god' "lah".
>   2. It has no feminine and no plural.

<material on Arabic phonetics deleted>

>Opinion: People who want to dehumanize the perceived enemy, or portray them
>as different and inferior, find it suits their prejudice to reject
>equivalences and translations that might imply that THEY have any values in
>common with US. Thus, WE true believers worship "God" while THEY, who are
>infidels, worship "Allah" (or vice versa).

1.  see the OED2.  Yes, "Allah" literally means "the God"
2.  referring to the Deity of Islam, of course there is no need for a plural,
and most cultures ascribe grammatical gender if not quasi-biological gender
to their deities.  However, I am sure there is some means in Arabic to refer
to "the gods of the ancient Greek pantheon"

As for your stated "Opinion", I think it is irrelevant.  "Propaganda" implies
deliberate intent on somebody's part to convince the listener.  However,
English-speakers have been referring to the Moslem Deity as "Allah" for so
long that even the most sensitive and unprejudiced listener will be
distracted to hear "the Moslem God" or some such.  This is not propaganda,
but rather a fossilized linguistic tradition.

By comparison, how many people outside the ADS-L list realize that "heathen"
literally means "hick"?

You are not discussing "People who want to dehumanize the perceived enemy";
you are discussing folklore.

Yes, this kind of folklore can and does have a major effect.  Consider a
different example: when Lech Walesa and Solidarity became big news almost a
generation ago, how many Americans had their views of what was happening in
Poland influenced Archie Bunker-style by familiarity with Polack jokes?

(A Russian once asked me why Americans told Polack jokes.  He said that in
Russia Poles were stereotyped as intelligient, well-educated people. )

             - Jim Landau