Of course it's the same deity; the difference is in the believers

Submitted by Stan Goodman (Israel), Sep 30, 2006 at 13:19

Pre-Islamic Arabia was pagan and polytheistic, with different deities being popular in different parts of the peninsula. When Muhammad, for commercial reasons, saw a need unify the tribes religiously, to make orderly trade possible, he copied his One God, including the Name) from the only other available monotheists, the Jews. The name "Allah" is identical with the name "Eloah" of the Hebrew God; the two are written identically, only the letter-forms are different. Using the Hebrew names for the characters, both are spelled ALEF double-LAMED HEH.

That Islam has a perverted understanding of this Deity is quite another question, but He is the same God. That Islam considers murder to be a service to this God is a reflection of the barbarity of its culture, but that has no bearing on the question as asked.

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