Should christians refer to GOD as Allah

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DRIVING_BEAR

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The following is a link to a story about Dutch CC bishop Tiny Muskens who stated that to promote christian / Islamic goodwill Christians should refer to GOD as Allah.
I personally disagree with his position and I am curious about how catholics think and feel on this issue
so please vote in to poll and express your views on this topic

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57178
 
Arabic speaking Christians do, just as English speaking muslims may refer to God as “God”. All Allah means in Arabic is “God” (singular), with the definite article, i.e. “The [one] God” as opposed to the numerous gods of the various polythestic religions.
 
I call Him Allah every week in the Melkite Divine Liturgy. We were refering to the God of Abraham as Allah before the Muslims even existed. 👍

Peace and God bless!
 
I guess the “Bishop” is OK w/ calling God Allah … but whatever you do, don’t call Him Deus!
 
I’ve no objection to the Holy One being refered to as Allah by those whose word for the Lord God is Allah, as Ghosty mentions. I don’t understand why a Dutchman or an Englishman or a Frenchman would do so or why a Dutch bishop or an English one or a French one would encourage them to do so.
 
I voted "No I do not agree with the Bishop and he should be Disclipined by Rome " because (a) I do not agree Christians should call God “Allah” simply to appease Muslims; Arabic Christians call God “Allah” because they’re Arabic, not because they want to appease Muslims (b) it is absurd to say God does not care how people address Him; the Bishop ought to take a look at the 2nd Commandment again and (c) I think he ought to be disciplined because he advocates contraception.
 
If the question is phrased as ‘CAN Christians refer to God as Allah’, I’ll say yes if one is speaking in Arabic to Arab-speaking Christians (Where Allah is used as a term for God, perhaps cognate with Hebrew ‘El’) and one is not attempting syncretism or any weird stuff.
But English-speakers already have a word for God: ‘God’, ‘Lord’, ‘I Am’ so calling Him ‘Allah’ in languages other than Arabic is unnecessary and may cause confusion. Plus we do not need to appease everyone; it that were to be so I guess next we should proclaim Buddha as a saint just to appease Buddhists!
 
The Bishop’s idea is nonsense and counterproductive!
I pray instead that Muslims start calling Jesus: Savior!
May the Dear Lord Lord have Mercy upon us!
Pray for the conversion of Islam…
 
The usage of the word “Allah” must be use for Arab speaking countries especially in the Evangalization missions of the Church.
If the Bishop intends to use it as a substitute for the word “God” eventhough we don’t speak Arabic let him be anathema. The word “Allah” is appropriate for Arabic speaking countries because they understand the word, the word “God” is appropriate for those who use the English language and so on…
God’s name can be translated according to any country’s translations, but we should not change the fundamental teachings of our God (Holy Trinity).

Pax
Laudater Jesus Christo
Instaurare omnia in Christo
 
Since “Allah” refers to God the Father and denies the Holy Trinity, “Allah” is not the complete True God. This bishop is ABSOLUTELY wrong.

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Basel, Session 19, Sept. 7, 1434:

“There is hope that very many from the abominable sect of Mahomet will be converted to the Catholic faith.”

**Pope Callixtus III, 1455: **

“I vow to… exalt the true Faith, and to extirpate the diabolical sect of the reprobate and faithless Mahomet [Islam] in the East”

Pope Clement V, Council of Vienne, 1311 - 1312:

“It is an insult to the holy name and a disgrace to the Christian faith that in certain parts of the world subject to Christian princes where Saracens * live, sometimes apart, sometimes intermingled with Christians, the Saracen priests, commonly called Zabazala, in their temples or mosques, in which the Saracens meet to adore the infidel Mahomet, loudly invoke and extol his name each day at certain hours from a high place… This brings disrepute on our faith and gives great scandal to the faithful. These practices cannot be tolerated without displeasing the divine majesty. We therefore, with the sacred council’s approval, strictly forbid such practices henceforth in Christian lands. We enjoin on Catholic princes, one and all… They are to forbid expressly the public invocation of the sacrilegious name of Mahomet… Those who presume to act otherwise are to be so chastised by the princes for their irreverence, that others may be deterred from such boldness.”
**
St. Francis Xavier, May, 1546: **

“The evil [of Islam] was introduced by some Mahometan caicizes (ministers of religion), who came from Mecca in Arabia, where the accursed body of Mahomet is honored with great superstition.”

**St. Francis of Assisi (+ c. 1210): **

[To the Muslims] “We have come to preach faith in Jesus Christ to you, that you will renounce Mohammad, that wicked slave of the devil, and obtain everlasting life like us.”*
 
I’ve no problem with Arabic (or related semitic language speakers) using the word Allah when speaking in that language.

I do have a problem with the Bishop suggesting that non-semitic speakers should do so.

I’ve a bigger problem still with the stated reasoning of appeasing gnostic heretics.
 
JKirkLVNV said:
I don’t understand why a Dutchman or an Englishman or a Frenchman would do so or why a Dutch bishop or an English one or a French one would encourage them to do so.
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Probably for the same reason that Islam is conquering Europe-fear of offending.

Christ’s peace.
 
In Indonesia, we call God the Father (not Jesus, not the Holy Spirit) as “Allah Bapa”. Literally the word Bapa means Father and the word Allah means God. Allah in this case means exactly as God. So, the words are interchangeable without necessarily lose the meaning. The ancient hebrew used Adonay, Ellohim, YHWH, El Shaddai or Jahwe/Jehovah to refer to our God the Father. I do not believe that our God really cares. Sure He does not mind for us to call Him in a certain name. He knows that we are looking for Him, and He will be happy. Interestingly, some of our moslem brothers (the hardliners) promote to ban non-moslem to use the word “Allah”. Such promotion did not make any ground to other moslems as far as we know. By the way, the Catholic are minority here in Indonesia. But, I disagree to the Bishop to use the word Allah just for the purpose of promotion to the our moslem brothers. We can use any name to refer to God the Father, but we can not use a certain name/word just for a purpose other than worshipping God.
 
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patrick457:
If the question is phrased as ‘CAN Christians refer to God as Allah’, I’ll say yes if one is speaking in Arabic to Arab-speaking Christians (Where Allah is used as a term for God, perhaps cognate with Hebrew ‘El’) and one is not attempting syncretism or any weird stuff.
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Not ‘perhaps cognate.’ It is cognate.
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patrick457:
But English-speakers already have a word for God: ‘God’, ‘Lord’, ‘I Am’ so calling Him ‘Allah’ in languages other than Arabic is unnecessary and may cause confusion. Plus we do not need to appease everyone; it that were to be so I guess next we should proclaim Buddha as a saint just to appease Buddhists!
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So you have a problem with Latin mass? ‘Deus’ or ‘Deo’ aren’t okay with you?

As for canonizing the Buddha, the RCC did that quite a long time ago. You may have heard of a St. Josaphat, perhaps? Same guy.
 
A non-Muslim scholar produced the Penguin English translation of the Koran. When he showed it to a Muslim group, they were basically happy with it, but made only one request, that the word “Allah” be replaced by “God”. This he did.
 
Nepenthe said:
Not ‘perhaps cognate.’ It is cognate.

So you have a problem with Latin mass? ‘Deus’ or ‘Deo’ aren’t okay with you?

As for canonizing the Buddha, the RCC did that quite a long time ago. You may have heard of a St. Josaphat, perhaps? Same guy.
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Are you saying that Siddhartha Gautama was the same person as St. Josaphat? I hope not because they are very different.
 
I voted:

“I personally disagree with the Bishop, but do not object to others referring to GOD as Allah”

I disagree with him because it might send out bad picture and even possibly cause a scandal. But generally I’m not agaist it. If you’re an Arabic Christian then you will obviously call God Allah for that’s what it means in Arabic (as was already said). Nothing wrong with that.
 
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