The Bishop of Breda, Tiny Muskens, wants people to start calling God Allah. He says the Netherlands should look to Indonesia, where the Christian churches already pray to Allah. It is also common in the Arab world: Christian and Muslim Arabs use the words God and Allah interchangeably.
Speaking on the Dutch TV programme Network on Monday evening, Bishop Muskens (pictured) says it could take another 100 years but eventually the name Allah will be used by Dutch churches. And that will promote rapprochement between the two religions.
Retiring
Muskens doesn't expect his idea to be greeted with much enthusiasm. The 71-year-old bishop, who will soon be retiring due to ill health, says God doesn't mind what he is called. God is above such "discussion and bickering". Human beings invented this discussion themselves, he believes, in order to argue about it.
More than 30 years ago Bishop Muskens worked in Indonesia and, there, God was called Allah, even in Catholic churches. The Dutch should learn to get on spontaneously with different cultures, religions and behaviour patterns:
"Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa (Almighty God) for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years. In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can't we start doing that together?"
In the Arab world God is called Allah. The long history of Christianity in the Arab world led to the development of a rich Christian-Islamic theological vocabulary, which makes God a normal equivalent to Allah. Both Muslims and Christians use the word in the Middle East.
ar-Rabb
Apart from Allah, the term ar-Rabb (the Lord) is also widely used, although this appears far more often in the Arabic version of the Bible than in the Qur'an. In the Islamic context, references to ar-Rabb are normally found in the possessive form, such as Rabbi (My Lord). Interestingly, the word Allah was already in use by Christians in the pre-Islamic period.
Bishop Muskens proposal will undoubtedly receive a warm welcome from the Islamic community in the Netherlands. Particularly as it follows last week's remarks by Geert Wilders about banning the Qur'an and, shortly before that, former Muslim Ehsan Jami's comparison of Muhammad with Osama bin Laden.
Attention
Perhaps this is the reason Bishop Muskens' remarks have received so much attention in the Dutch press. The bishop actually said exactly the same several years ago. He also suggested abolishing Whit Monday as a national holiday in favour of an Islamic religious day.
In the past, Bishop Muskens has offended many Muslims. In 2005 he said Islam was a religion without a future because it had too many violent aspects. The bishop is also responsible for a number of controversial remarks. He caused uproar in the Netherlands when he said the poor had a right to steal bread if they were hungry. And he put the Vatican's back up with an appeal for the use of condoms in the fight against AIDS.
* Translated from Dutch (imm)
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Thomas Borgers,
29-04-2008
- USA
This bishop has alot of dung between his ears - to be blunt and to the point. As a Lutheran Christian, as for many of my fellow Christians, my God has many names (i.e. Emanuel, Elohim, Yaweh, Father) but Allah is not one of them. In pre-Islamic times, "Allah" was the pagan moon-god of the Arabs. "Allah" was one of many gods in the pantheon of gods in Arabia. the false prophet Mohammed used this god to unify the Arab peoples one principle god, but pagan and un-biblical none-the-less. I reject referring to my Lord as "Allah." It would be like calling God "Odin," or "Zeus," to make God politically correct for those who would refer to Him (praised be His name) under a pagan name. This is one more example of how Dhimmi's are ushering in the collapse of western civilisation in the name of multiculturalism and political correctness. Shame on that Catholic Bishop! And shame on the church that ordained him!
Murtado,
28-03-2008
-
This gullible bishop says "Netherlands should look to Indonesia, where the Christian churches already pray to Allah." Does he have any idea how the Muslims are treating non-Muslims in Indonesia? Muslims are burning down churches in the name of Allah too in Indonesia. Muslims are killing (including beheading Christians too) and raping Chinese during a riot in 1998 in the name of Allah too. This gullible bishop is trying to tolerate intolerance. Or maybe Christians should go to Mecca and bend over 5 times a day too.
Robert ,
22-03-2008
- Singapore
There is a difference between a personal name, which is also understood as a proper noun, and a title, which is a common noun, which can become a generic name. God is a title not a personal name. The god who spoke to Moses at Mt Sinai disclosed his personal name as YHWH, which may be pronounced "Yahweh" or "Yehwah", but cetainly not "Jehovah" or "Yehovah", which is a fusion of YHWH and the vowels of"adona". YHWH is God, and YHWH in the Christian faith understanding is known as God in three persons (faces):God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
In a traditional eastern/middle- eastern family a child does not address his father or mother by their personal names although the parents have their personal names (proper nouns). It is extremely impolite for a child to call his parents by their names although he may know their names. It is proper for the child to call her parents using the family titiles: "Father", "Dad", "Ayah (in Indonesian) or "Mother", "Mum", or "Ibu" (in Indonesian). So although God has personal names such as "YHWH" or "YHWH Sabaoth", his children on this earth should not call him by his personal names but titles: such as "Abba", "Father", "God", or "Lord". These titles then become generic names but not personal names. Let's see another example. The title given to the top leader of a country can be "President". He has his own personal name, for example, "ABC". People of the world will knowhim as "President ABC". In a direct communication with him, it is proper to call him "Mr President" or "Bapak Presiden", which is a generic name, and it's shockingly impolite to address him "President ABC". And his children will prefer call ing him "Dad", and not "Mr President", nor "President ABC".
In the Indonesian Bible, "Allah" is not a personal name but a title which has developed to become a generic name. The personal name "YHWH" (in Hebrew) is translated as "TUHAN", which is a title, which has developed to be a generic name. The generic name "Elohim" (in Hebrew), which is also a common noun, is translated "Allah" in Indonesian, which is a common noun, which then has developed to be a generic name.
jasmin,
04-02-2008
- India
"It is time for believers of all religions to stop attacking each other and brandishing their sacred books as being the sole guardians of God’s word. For that is wrong, yes, wrong and ridiculous, and true faith gains nothing by these quarrels. Why are believers of all religions still told it was God himself who spoke to the prophets and that their ‘sacred’ texts contain only eternal truths? All the holy books are still only fragments, incomplete, imperfect copies of the only great book that was truly written by God: the universe, which also includes the human being, created in the image of the universe. Some people will accuse me of sacrilege, of heresy. Well, let them yell as much as they like. It is only the ignorant that could possibly be indignant, for they do not know how God envisaged the universe and humans. Even if the sacred books were inspired by heaven – and they certainly were – they do not solely contain truths that are irrefutable and for all time.''
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
Jeff,
07-01-2008
- USA
The Catholics in their translations, and those responsible (in 1600's) for the KJ bible all mistakenly translated the NAME of God the Father (the Tetragramatan, commonly in English YHWH) as LORD or GOD, all caps. But these are titles, not the NAME of God the Father - his name which appears over 7,000 times in the bible, is JEHOVAH or YAHWEH.
Why did the writers of the bible originally include that name? Obviously, it is of utmost importance to His worshippers and friends (like Abraham...) to know Him by name.- read Acts 15:14, based on Isaiah's prophecy in 55:5 and many others. IT MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE IF YOU CARE ABOUT TRUE WORSHIP.
TopAssistant,
30-09-2007
- USA
I will die before I would ever lower the dignity of God to refer to him as ALLAH. God is the only God, Allah is only someone they write about.
Rabiul,
30-09-2007
- Bangladesh
That is good. And we should also follow the rules of Allah. Else, it will be of no use again. Because no diplomacy or trick with Allah will be successful.
Sadiq,
12-09-2007
- USA
My christian friends find it strange to know about the fact that Jesus Christ Himself referred God by the name Alaha, which has the same root as Allah. Details:
http://mysticsaint.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-word-did-jesus-used-to-call-god.html. May God unite mankind and bring peace.
Mohammad Kaiser,
mohammadkaiser@sympatico.ca,
11-09-2007
- Canada
Beautiful and unique explanations. May Allah shower his blessings upon all mankind and give guidance who do not or dont want to understand. Amen.
Geoff Miller,
04-09-2007
- France
Obviously nicknamed Tiny because of the size of his intellect.
To assume that the Muslim "Allah" is in fact the Chritian/Jewish GOD/JAWEH is a stretch. It is not. They only tied their Moon god deity to the biblical God in order to lend legitimacy to their cult.
Mouaz Alkhatib,
03-09-2007
- syria
Christianity itself came from the Middle East, and no problem to say Allah because it's the original word. At the same time do you know that all football supporters say Allah all the time, because the say: Ole Ole ... and you can check that this word came from Andalus (Spain) and it was Allah.
aine,
21-08-2007
- usa
You do know that this is a tall tale islamic site known for their lies?
www.answering-christianity.com
Francis,
18-08-2007
-
To name something is to place it within a category, which limits it. A supreme being must by definition be beyond such limitation or categorization. Without boundaries, no definition exists.
A deity who can be named is thereby bounded and is not the supreme being. The Tao that can be named is not the real Tao, says Lao Tse. When pressed to give his name, the only response of the Abrahamic God was to express not definition but pure existence: "I Am."
Thus it is appropriate to shun even the appearance of attempting to name God, like Adam naming the beasts. The deity is not for naming but for unspoken awe. There is good reason for the use of circumlocutions such as "G-d" and "Adonai."
Sergio,
18-08-2007
-
Why don't call God with the french DIEU? Why not? Why Allah? How do they say God in Farsi? Perhaps in farsi it is a better sound.
mo,
17-08-2007
-
I'm from Indonesia and I totally disagree with this bishop. In the Indonesian Bible, this is how the Christians refer to God:
God = Tuhan
Father = Tuhan Allah, Allah Bapa, or simply, Allah
Jesus = Yesus, or Tuhan Yesus
Holly Spirit = Roh Kudus
Bible = Alkitab (probably from Arabic "Al Kitab" that means "the book"?)
While it is true Christians refer to the Father as Allah, it is understood that Christian's Allah is different from Islam's Allah. I don't think the Indonesian Christians believe they are praying to Islam's Allah. Neither do the muslims. Otherwise, they would have stopped killing the Christians by now. So I think the bishop got the nuances of the word wrong.
A couple of interesting points: The word "Madrasa" always refers to "extreme Islamic school", not regular school, even though in Arabic it only means "school". For regular school, we call it "sekolah". So trying to understand a word from its literal translation can be misleading if not used within its cultural context.
The word "koran" actually means "newspaper" in Indonesia.
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