Phew ... at it again ...

Submitted by Oliver (United States), Mar 21, 2008 at 01:58

So, by that argument, if the context is the overriding factor, then the use of "Allah" is used in the context of Christianity, by Arabic speaking Christians when the read the Arabic bible, should be perfectly acceptable. After all, the word "Allah" is a perfectly acceptable translation for "theos".

Nope - theos is a generic word - Allah is the NAME of a pagan god - theos tells you nothing about the god you might be talking about - Allah specifically identifies the god you are talking about - Allah is not a good translation for theos, because the presence of the definite article makes it specific added to the fact that ALLAH IS A NAME. Acceptable translations for theos would be ilah or al ilah, when the article is required. The mandatory usage of Allah vs al ilah is patently an Islamic coersion.

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