Allah may be the arabic word for "god", but Allah is not the same God as Yahweh

Submitted by Dvd (United States), Oct 28, 2006 at 15:39

Although I respect most of Mr. Pipes opinions on this webpage, in this article, he is just repeating ... what generally comes from the mouths of moslems. Sadly, its repeated in ignorance by many people who call themselves "Christians" and "Jews".

Stating the fact that the Arabic word for "god" is "Allah", and that translations of the Bible use the term "Allah" for God, is just stating the obvious. I don't know Arabic, but I would assume there is no other generic word for "god" (in the sense of "deity"), so the translators had no choice but use "allah" when they translated the word "god". If that is incorrect (i.e. there were more generic choices), then I would say those translators of the Bible made a poor choice.

In any case, the choices of translators, or the fact that Mohammed claimed to worship the same "God" as the Jews and Christians -- does not make it so. The important thing is how we understand and define our specific deity. (whatever name we call Him).

For example, I could claim that I followed "Zeus". But if you asked me who this "Zeus" was, and I told you he was a man who lived in India, became enlightened and taught the Four Noble Truths... you would quickly discern I was a follower of Buddha, and not a worshipper of "Zeus". You would know that I am just mixed up enough to confuse the two names.

So, whether or not Mohammed and his followers CLAIM to worship the same God as Jews and Christians does not automatically make it so. You have to look at what is taught in the Koran, and Bible and ask whether the descriptions of God/Allah in both books are the same. You also have to look at how the religions understand their deity, based on their understanding of their own scriptures.

Mohammed and his followers have made it clear that they do NOT accept the teachings and description of God in the Bible. In fact, their teaching is that there was another version of the Bible that contained the true teachings of "Allah" but that the Jews (and eventually Christians) corrupted that Bible, and it no longer exists.

That fabrication is what is being referred to in the Koran when Mohammed says the things quoted by Pipes: "We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you".

Mohammed and his followers do not accept the teachings of the Bible. They claim to accept the teachings of a previous Moslem book that was "revealed to you" and which was corrupted to become the Bible.

This is also evidenced in Pipes' reference to the idea that "Islam actually preceded the other monotheisms. In Islamic doctrine (Sura 3:67), Abraham was the first Muslim. Moses and Jesus introduced mistakes into the Word of God; Muhammad brought it down perfectly." The implication here is that both the written TANAKH (Old Testament) and the Gospels are false.

So the claim by Moslems that they are a "people of the Book" (meaning the Bible) is also disingenuous. The only version of the "Bible" that they accept is a fabrication that never existed. We have a very large number of ancient copies of the Bible that is the same as that of Christians and Jews. But there are NO copies of the version Moslems refer to has the "True" Bible.

You cannot learn anything about the Christian or Jewish God by reading the Koran or teachings of Islam. You can only understand the Christian/Jewish God by reading the Bible. But that is a large complex book (actually set of books). And its a lot easier for people to repeat uncritically nonsense such as "Moslems worship the same God..." and "Moslems are a people of The Book."

If you really want to know the truth... read the Bible (TANAKH/Old Testament), the New Testament, and the Koran. The God of Christian and Jews is the God of Abraham, ISAAC, and JACOB/ISRAEL. He is NOT the "Allah" of Mohammed.

Don't just repeat Moslem Apologetics!

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