Posted on 09/17/2007 10:27:56 AM PDT by dennisw
Soeren Kern, August 23, 2007
Filed Under Eurabia, Islam, Transatlantic Relations
Europeans love to mock the salience of religion in American society. But they won’t be laughing for very long. It is a well-documented fact that the de-Christianization of Europe in the name of “tolerance” is rapidly driving the spiritually shiftless continent into the arms of Islam. And now, amidst the postmodern theological confusion that defines contemporary Europe , even Catholic clergy are jumping on the Islamomania bandwagon.
The latest post-Christian theological spectacle comes to us from the Netherlands (of Ayaan Hirsi Ali fame), where the Roman Catholic Bishop of Breda, Tiny Muskens, says he wants Christians to start calling God “Allah” because he believes such a gesture would promote “rapprochement between Christianity and Islam”. Appearing on Dutch television, the 71-year-old cleric said: “Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn’t we all say that from now on we will name God Allah? … What does God care what we call him?”
Inquiring minds want to know: If the bishop really thinks the names “God” and “Allah” are interchangeable, why doesn’t he ask Muslims to start calling Allah “Yahweh”, the biblical name for God? But he won’t, because he knows they won’t.
Indeed, just because Christianity, Judaism and Islam are called “monotheistic” faiths, it does not follow that Christians, Jews and Muslims pray to the same God. So for those pre-postmoderns who believe that words still mean something, a quick survey of archaeology, history and theology—accompanied by a dose of common sense—can answer the question of whether the Allah of Islam is really the God of the Bible.
What Archaeology Says about Allah
Muslims claim that in pre-Islamic times, “Allah” was the biblical God of the Patriarchs, prophets and apostles. Indeed, the credibility of Islam as a religion stands or falls on its core claim of historical continuity with Judaism and Christianity. No wonder, then, that many Muslims get uppity when the claims of Islam are subjected to the hard science of archaeology.
Because archaeology provides irrefutable evidence that Allah, far from being the biblical God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was actually the pre-Islamic pagan moon-god. Indeed, it is an established archaeological fact that worship of the moon-god was the main religion of the ancient Middle East .
But what about the Arabian Peninsula , where Mohammed (570-632) launched Islam? During the last two centuries, prominent archaeologists have unearthed thousands of inscriptions which prove beyond any doubt that the dominant religion of Arabia during Mohammed’s day was the cult of the moon-god.
In fact, for generations before Mohammed was born, the Arabs worshipped some 360 pagan gods housed at a stone temple in Mecca called the Kabah. According to archaeologists, the chief deity of Mecca was the moon-god called al-ilah (meaning the god or the idol), which was shortened to Allah in pre-Islamic times. Pagan Arabs even used Allah in the names they gave themselves: Mohammed’s father (Abdallah), for example, had Allah as part of his name.
What History Says about Allah
Historians say that pre-Islamic Arabs worshipped the moon-god by bowing in prayer toward Mecca several times a day. They would also make a pilgrimage to Mecca , run around the Kabah seven times and throw stones at the devil. And they fasted for one month, which began with the appearance of the crescent moon and ended when the crescent moon reappeared.
These same rites form the core of Islam today: Muslims bow in prayer toward Mecca ; they make a pilgrimage to Mecca and run around the Kabah seven times; and they still throw stones at the devil. They also observe the fast of Ramadan, which begins and ends with the crescent moon.
Moreover, the ancient symbol of the pagan moon-god, the crescent moon, is the official symbol of Islam; it appears on the flags of Muslim countries, as well as on the tops of mosques and minarets everywhere.
Historians say that Mohammed, who as a traveling trader was exposed to Judaism and Christianity during his visits to different parts of the Middle East , tried to mimic those monotheistic faiths by taking Allah, the main deity within the Arabian pantheon, and making it the only god. Indeed, the basic confession of Islam is not that “Allah is Great” but that “Allah is Greater”. Greater than all the other idols, that is.
But Islam also draws from other pagan traditions. For example, the tale of Mohammed’s night journey into heaven parallels the Zoroastrian story of Arta Viraf. Zoroastrianism also inspired the Islamic belief that dark-eyed virgins await every man who enters heaven. And the Islamic ritual of praying five times a day? That, historians say, originates with the Sabeans, Syrian pagans who practiced an ecumenical mixture of Babylonian and Hellenic religion.
No surprise, then, that some scholars refer to Islam as monotheistic heathenism.
What Theology Says about Allah
Muslims claim that Islam is Judaism and Christianity reformed. They say the Koran confirms the truth of the Torah and the Gospels. But since those texts did not jibe with Mohammad’s beliefs, they accuse Jews and Christians of changing and distorting the original versions. Muslims therefore assert that the Koran “clarifies” the Bible.
Even if that were the case, the Koran and the Bible present ideas about God (especially about His character) that are so diametrically opposed that any reasonable observer would conclude that each book refers to a distinct deity.
The Koran, for example, states unequivocally that Allah is an unknowable and non-personal deity. By contrast, the God of the Bible allows Himself to be known and desires fellowship with human beings on a personal basis. Indeed, the Bible says that Abraham (the same Abraham who Muslims say they venerate) was the “friend of God.”
The Koran also portrays Allah as a vindictive deity who hates sinners and desires to afflict them. But the Bible says God is love.
Moreover, the Bible teaches that God loved humanity so much that He came to earth to pay the debt for man’s sin, and that that act of grace is available for free to anyone who believes Jesus Christ is their personal Savior. But Islam denies that Christ was God or that He died in order to save humanity. Indeed, Allah does not provide any way for man to be reconciled to God.
And the theological differences go on and on, so much so that the God of the Bible cannot possibly be the Allah worshipped in Islam. Unless, of course, a Dutch bishop says so.
Allah and Eurabia
Mohammed thought the Jews and Christians of his day would receive him as a prophet. But the Bible says that any new revelation must agree with what is already established in Scripture (Isaiah 8:20). So they rejected his Allah as a false god. And Mohammed replied by setting his Islam on a maniacal warpath against Judaism and Christianity that continues to this day.
The Dutch bishop and other Muslim fellow travelers think they can buy a fake peace with Islam by playing relativistic word games as a part of an “inter-faith” dialogue. But Muslims understand much better than do post-modern Europeans that ecumenical appeasement is a symptom of a Judeo-Christian civilization that is weak and dying.
The irony is that the real danger from Islam stems not so much from ordinary Muslims as it does from sickly Europeans who have subverted their Judeo-Christian heritage in search of secular hedonism. Because they live only for the moment, they are willing submit to anything, including Islam, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the pursuit of pleasure today.
It has been more than 50 years since the late Christian apologist C.S. Lewis first warned about Western Civilization’s disastrous lurch into post-Christianity. But even he would be surprised to see how quickly Islam is filling the religious and cultural vacuum that is post-Christian Europe .
It’s not that Europeans haven’t been forewarned. It’s that they couldn’t care less.
Originally published in The American Thinker
Also published in The Brussels Journal
Also published in Front Page Magazine
Soeren Kern is Senior Analyst for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group.
“And the theological differences go on and on, so much so that the God of the Bible cannot possibly be the Allah worshipped in Islam.”
And that, folks, just about sums it up.....
God is LOVE.
Allah is HATE...............
What is Islam based on?
Mohammed went into “trances” and fits (like epileptic fits) when he was given the “word of God” and would shout out what he was told. These would be written down by his followers. This is the makeup of the Koran.
When Mohammed was just walking and talking and acting like “normal”, his words and deeds were written down by his followers and this went into the Hadith. Now, acting “normal” for Mohammed was taking 12+ wives (including a 6 year old), taking slaves (including sex slaves), executing infidels, conducting raids for treasure, etc.
Now, this is where it gets complicated.
A large part of the words he spoke in trances were “taken back” by Mohammed. He determined them to be the work of the devil (thus they are called the “Satanic Verses” and these are the same verses that Mr. Salman Rushdie got in trouble for writing about).
Now, how Mohammed determined which verses were from God and which were from Satan I do not know.
Also, there were literally dozens of widely different versions of the Koran and Hadith floating around for several hundred years after Mohammed death until a Fatwah was decreed to destroy all but one version. Now, even Mohammed could not remember what he was told by God and forgot it (those are his words as written in the Hadith) so I do not know how the powers in charge decided which was the correct version.
Also according to the Hadith, Mohammed turned people into monkeys, you can determine a child’s sex depending on whether the male or female has an orgasm first (that advice came directly from the Angel Gabriel), dogs and cats are evil and should be killed, that the devil lives in your nose at night (and how to get rid of him in the morning), chess is forbidden, muslims have one intestine while infidels have seven, don’t pray looking up or your eyes will be snatched away, that one wing of a fly is poison but the other is the cure, that drinking camel urine is good for you and I could go on.
And that Mohammed himself didn’t even know if he was going to heaven. If even Mohammed doesn’t know, what chance does the average muslim have?
And for some non-PC info, Mohammed was described as a white man.
Now, if you can bear it, to compare to the Gospels of New Testament.
Jesus was someone who lived a very humble life and was killed for basically saying he was a King and Son of God (blasphemy) by the powers in charge (Roman and Jewish). The government wanted Jesus destroyed and wanted his growing movement destroyed (as it threatened their power). If, after 3 days, the followers of Jesus proclaimed he has risen from the dead, (just as he predicted), and is truly our Savior, the High Officials would have wanted to destroy such a “myth.” They could have easily done this by producing the dead body of Jesus and saying “Your Messiah is still dead and so is your movement” or producing many eye witnesses of the dead Jesus. But they couldn’t.
The letters that make up the New Testament were written by the eye witnesses of the events of Jesus. They were written in just one generation when many other eye witnesses were still alive. They were written without collusion from other Apostles. Even if any of the Apostles wanted to “add” to the “myth” of Jesus, they would have done so in a very disjointed and easily detectable fashion. Yet, the main Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) that describe the life of Jesus are amazingly in harmony with one another and the small differences are consistent with what we would see today if four people witnessed a major event and wrote about the event apart from each other. The Gospels can be traced back to their sources and are basically unchanged from their originals.
The Bible is the most investigated historical document in the history of the world. It has been investigated by scientists, philosophers and archeologists using technology undreamed of when the Bible was written. It is been desperately tried to be “disproved” for over 2000 years, yet, the Bible still stands as the truth.
The stories of Jesus still make sense to us today. It may be because they are true, it may be because they are based in love or it may be because they were written to tell the people of the Word of God.
Regards,
2banana
allah = satan
Nannar/Sin
whose symbol was the crescent moon seen on many mosques. Understanding that god and the social structure associated with isr worship explains a lot about modern Islamic Societies.
Nannar/Sin was an ancient god of Sumer, and his effects on civilization are today felt through Islam, which seeks to destroy man's ancient connection with the gods of the heavens. Nannar Sin was an "earth" god of terrible power and passion.
http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-photos-moon-worship-archealolgy.htm Ths Islam is associated with the terrible nature of earth gods while the Jews became associated with Jehovah whose origins were with the Annunaki of the sky.Of course Muslims deny their Sin connections apparent in archeology, saying that they too are connected to Jehovah through Abraham, which is not really true.
Abraham left Sumer and the god Nannar/Sin behind. The society which eventually became Muslim did not leabe Nanar Sin behind, but incorporated that god into the concept of Allah, which is why the crecent moon adorns many mosques today.
The ancient battle between heaven and earth is still in many ways , being fought today. But few today are capable of understanding that context accurately because of modern religious prejudice.
Despite Sitchins theories , often decried as speculative and far out, you can lean much about human history from his sharp linguistic and archeological intellect.
The goddess Inanna also figues in the story.
You can get a quick picture of things from this site:
http://www.neithdirect.ndo.co.uk/sitchin.htm
This is a silly argument. Regardless of its etymology, Allah is not used to designate a moon-god today. Indeed, I am told that Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews say "Allah" when they refer to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Aas far as I know, that is correct, and I believe Christians who speak Semitic languages have always used the word or a cognate thereof to refer to God since well before Mohammed's time (I think Arabic Allah and Hebrew El are cognate). I'm no fan of Islam at all, but sloppy arguments don't help anybody.
Pinging NYer for some much-needed Maronite perspective.
Muhammad was a false prophet. When this is your starting point Islam becomes crystal clear to you. The Allah of the Muslims today is the same Allah of the Muslims of 7th century Arabia. This same Allah is the moon god of the pagan Arab prior to Islam.
Some Jews and Christians of the Middle East who are sloppy and brainwashed might refer to God as Allah. But this a mistake. Just because the Arab word for God is Allah doesn’t mean this is accurate or true. It’s just another Islamic hallucination.
Muhammad named his god Allah to appeal to the Arab pagans. They knew Allah as a popular moon god and Allah is still a moon god. The teachings of false prophets are null and void. So Allah remains a moon god
9 posted on 09/17/2007 12:42:15 PM MDT by Logophile
Allah is not the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac nor Israel !
shalom b'shem Yah'shua
Sloppy and brainwashed? What a thing to say. If the Arabic word for God is Allah—and Allah is the word used for God in the Arabic Bible—what word is an Arabic-speaking Christian or Jew supposed to use?
What it really points up is the age old struggle between good and evil that the bible talks so much about. If ever it’s looked like the world is lined up for Biblical prophecy to come about it’s now.
Jehovah, Yahweh, Hashem will do nicely. Your multi culti yapping does not impress me because Mohammad is a false prophet. His Allah is phony
Your comments are ALWAYS priceless. The last few paragraphs about the Gospels reveal how they weave together to make a united presentation on the life and words of Our Lord.
...And a moon-god the Muslims still bow and walk around each year during the yearly pilgramage season.
Everytime I think the “allah” word, a picture of a moon-rock always comes to my mine.
Perhaps you can convince the Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews to change their language to your liking.
Your multi culti yapping does not impress me because Mohammad is a false prophet. His Allah is phony
"Multi culti?" Is culti a word in English?
You say that Mohammad was a false prophet. You will get no argument from me on that point.
However, the issue is not whether Mohammad was a false prophet, but whether you can convince anyone using silly arguments based on dubious etymology.
In case you have not noticed, the meanings of words change over time. Whatever Allah may have meant thousands of years ago, it means "God" to Arab speakers today. They use it to refer to the God of Abraham. If that offends you, take it up with them. There are about 250 million of them, so you have your work cut out for you.
Have a good evening.
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