It has always made me nuts to hear some Christians say that Muslims don't worship God but Allah. It's like saying the French don't worship God but rather some "Dieu" guy.
Of course this is not an original problem: The Israelites called to Adonai while slaughtering Ba'al worshippers... and both words mean "Lord" with exactly the same connotation.
Allah = God, but that's not to say that God (Muslim) = God (Christian). Space and Time don't mean quite the same things to Newtonians as to Einsteinians. God (Christian) incarnated in Jesus, while God (Muslim) did not, but used Jesus as a prophet preceding His final revelation to Muhammad. I'm no expert here, but I presume that Protestants and Catholics can still be worshipping the same God even if they disagree about whether members of the clergy should be allowed to marry -- since the matter is not a defining dogma of Christianity. But given that Christians and Muslims disagree over the defining matter of God's relation to Jesus, and to Muhammad, are they not worshipping different deities, even if those deities go by the same name in a given language?
You're right Aeolius. Akin's post was interesting to me because it explains why Vatican officials use the word Allah from time to time, esp. when speaking to Muslims. It's clearer to me now that they mean the Christian God but use the Muslim word for more diplomatic than theological reasons. As Akin points out, this does indeed create confusion because the properties ascribed to God by different Christians do vary, they are generally a lot closer to each other than they are to what Muslims hold to be God's properties. Christians are often confused and disturbed on hearing about events like this, but perhaps we don't need to be if 'Allah' is indeed a noun and not a name.
I have done some research on Islam and the Qur'an and found that before the comming of Muhammed, it was a very peaceful religion, and it states that "Allah" will judge christians and Jews on thier actions as well, and to treat them warmly. It wasn't until after the coming of Muhammed that things turned really violent. Where in chritianity, most of the violence is in the old testiment, and the new testiment reconsiles with its past, the Qur'an almost embraces violence after the coming of Muhammed. It is almost the exact opposite of the christian bible itself....
Islam before Mohammed? Isn't that like Judaism before Moses?
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