Replies

Apparently Arab-speaking Jews and Christians refer to our God as "Allah." It's just Arabic for "God." I suppose that the Times did a proper translation. They probably should have detailed the al-Qaida connection.

3 posted on 09/07/2004 6:22:19 PM PDT by dufekin (President Kerry would have our enemies partying like it's 1969. That's when he became a traitor.)

I fail to see your point. Substituting "God" for "Allah"
makes all the difference in the world, imho.

11 posted on 09/07/2004 6:26:52 PM PDT by chiller (Kill lying liberal Old media.....turn 'em off !)

You are correct, Arabic speaking Christians say "Allah" for God (for instance Quddouson Allah is the first line of the Trisagion Hymn (Holy God. . . in English, Hagios ho Theos. . .in Greek) and is a more faithful translation of the Greek original (ho Theos = the God, while Allah is an elision of al Illah = the God) than the English.

The issue of whether the NYT translation is appropriate turns on whether the cowardly thug was pleading entirely in Arabic, in which case a full translation is appropriate, or was using the Arabic "the God" in what was otherwise spoken in Russian or Chechen. Only the Muslims (or those following their custom in reporting Muslim speech or writing) treat Allah as a proper name and leave it untranslated when passing into other languages. An Arabic speaking Christian will sing "Holy God. . ." when singing the Trisagion in English, never "Holy Allah. . .". A Muslim speaking English will speak of Allah in refering to his deity, regarding the Arabic name as part of the Koranic 'revelation'.

If he was pleading in Russian or Chechen, translating Allah from the Arabic along with the translation from Russian or Chechen is dishonest. If he was speaking entirely in Arabic, I have no problem with the translation.

34 posted on 09/07/2004 7:15:29 PM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know what this was)

According to Mohammed...it was Allah who whispered all those neat things he put in the Koran
things like flying commercial aircraft into office towers and slitting female flight attendants throats with box cutters...rape torture theft lying stealing murder pedophilia sodomy all the things the Koran say are at times 'permissible' when done to glorify Allah...as the Russian school children recently found out and the Sudanese children have known for years...Allah can be harsh with any 'infidel'.... Jew ,Christian, and Pagan

Now if this Allah.. sounds like the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to you....well.. I highly recommend a bit more reading...(which we all could use anyway) IMO

41 posted on 09/07/2004 7:58:45 PM PDT by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)

It's just Arabic for "God." I suppose that the Times did a proper translation.

This was translation from Russian, not Arabic. He said in RUSSIAN "Allah" instead of "Bog".

52 posted on 09/08/2004 6:23:45 AM PDT by A. Pole (Madeleine Albright:"We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.")

Apparently Arab-speaking Jews and Christians refer to our God as "Allah."

The NY Times article wasn't written for the Arabs but for Americans who they are deliberately trying to mislead. "Allah" is not God, it is a different diety ---- you would never shout "God akbar" before bayoneting a small child or beheading an innocent person because the God of the Christians and Jews would not be pleased but they believe their allah is.

59 posted on 09/08/2004 3:54:26 PM PDT by FITZ

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