A rose by any other name...

[Uthgar the Brazen]

...would cause a terrible stink (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20279326/?GT1=10252).

Personally, I find it entertaining that the followers of a Middle Eastern regional deity are offended and protest on the basis that use of Allah would degrade their 'Western' culture.

[Watser?]

Oh, Muskens.

He's a bit weird. He once said that poor people should have the right to steal a loaf of bread. Pissed off all the bakers :mob:
And De Telegraaf is the most right-wing Dutch newspaper, they're always good for a knee-jerk reaction.

Allah is just the Arabic word for God though. There are no capitals in Arabic so Allah is literally 'the god'. Arab Christians and Jews use the same name.

[Watser?]

I especially liked this: A spokesman from the union of Moroccan mosques in Amsterdam said Muslims had not asked for such a gesture.

[Freddy]

As usual a Catholic bishop cannot get scripture straight. Speaking God's name, YHWH, was proscribed so Adonis (Lord), God, and Elohim, were words used to convey the deity or God. Allah is not God's name either as it means "the God". So what is used today, Lord, God and Allah, is all good. Jehovah is a corruption of YHWH, which no one is sure how to pronounce. The most common form used is Yahweh and if that is the correct translation it was not to be spoken by Hebrews as it was given only to Moses. The bishop is correct as long as one does not use God's real name. Then again if you are not religious, what does it matter? However, if there is a God who knows what he thinks about it? Why not just use God?

"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? It is our problem."

[Uthgar the Brazen]

...so Adonis (Lord)...

That would be adonai, actually. I've never wanted to have an all-night fuckfest with YHWH.

[erimir]

As usual a Catholic bishop cannot get scripture straight. Speaking God's name, YHWH, was proscribed so Adonis (Lord), God, and Elohim, were words used to convey the deity or God. Allah is not God's name either as it means "the God".I wonder if "elohim" and "allah" are cognate words. Hmmmm...

Anyway, personally I think that since "Allah" is merely the Arabic word for God, more Muslims ought to use the local word for God (not that they don't, I know many do). But they don't, because for some silly reason there's this stupid belief that Classical Arabic is somehow linguistically superior to other languages. Which for someone with a background in linguistics, is just stupid, because there's really nothing remarkable about Arabic (it has some unusual peculiarities, but then again, so do tons of other languages, including English), and basically all languages are equally expressive (languages with small vocabularies are quite capable of expanding them, after all, English has never had a problem with stealing words from other languages). And the whole fact that Arabic fits quite neatly into historical linguistics as being just another Semitic language. It just comes off as arrogant to me (but then again, it's not like you don't expect that from monotheistic and exclusive religions).

But I guess that whole issue would be more important when it comes to translations of the Qur'an than just whether you say "Allah" or "God". Hell, it might be part of the reason why there's not been something equivalent to the Reformation in Islam. Not allowing translation of the Bible into the vernacular was based on the Catholic Church clearly wanting to keep the knowledge out of the hands of the laity. It certainly couldn't be on any "principled" basis of the language the Bible was written in being sacred, considering it was written in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek). Whereas the Qur'an is written all in one language.

But maybe someone more knowledgeable about Islam knows better than me on that subject.

[Watser?]

I wonder if "elohim" and "allah" are cognate words. Hmmmm...
That seems very likely.

Anyway, personally I think that since "Allah" is merely the Arabic word for God, more Muslims ought to use the local word for God (not that they don't, I know many do). But they don't, because for some silly reason there's this stupid belief that Classical Arabic is somehow linguistically superior to other languages. Which for someone with a background in linguistics, is just stupid, because there's really nothing remarkable about Arabic (it has some unusual peculiarities, but then again, so do tons of other languages, including English), and basically all languages are equally expressive (languages with small vocabularies are quite capable of expanding them, after all, English has never had a problem with stealing words from other languages). And the whole fact that Arabic fits quite neatly into historical linguistics as being just another Semitic language. It just comes off as arrogant to me (but then again, it's not like you don't expect that from monotheistic and exclusive religions).

But I guess that whole issue would be more important when it comes to translations of the Qur'an than just whether you say "Allah" or "God". Hell, it might be part of the reason why there's not been something equivalent to the Reformation in Islam. Not allowing translation of the Bible into the vernacular was based on the Catholic Church clearly wanting to keep the knowledge out of the hands of the laity. It certainly couldn't be on any "principled" basis of the language the Bible was written in being sacred, considering it was written in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek). Whereas the Qur'an is written all in one language.

But maybe someone more knowledgeable about Islam knows better than me on that subject.
You could say that Islam doesn't need a reformation because there isn't really a religious hierarchy like in Catholicism (except in Shi'a Islam), theoretically in (Sunni) Islam every believer can interpret the Koran. In practice of course there are Islamic scholars who interpret the Koran and the Sunna and there are muftis who interpret the Shari'a.
You could also say (and it has been said) that the salafists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi) are the reformation movement in Islam: they think of themselves as purists who go back to 'true' Islam, they want to do away with pagan elements and saint worship, they put more emphasis on studying the Koran for themselves, they call everyone else kafirs (unbelievers) - which is why they are often referred to as takfiris - and I guess there are some other parallels but I can't think of them right now.
The Reformation in Christianity came with an awful lot of violence and religious wars and at least at first the protestants were more fundamentalist and fanatical than the catholics, there's another parallel for ya...

[Uthgar the Brazen]

Oh please, you liberal, baby-seal bashing revisionist wanker. John Calvin was about nothing if not love thy neighbour and snuggle a cute kitten today.

[Watser?]

:giggle:

Check this for instance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnster_Rebellion), I have read some books on that. One historian called it the first totalitarian society ever (not so sure about first, but it was totalitarian).