The God whom we call Allah

Muslims in Malaysia, the nation with the world’s largest population of Muslims, have attacked Christian Churches in the last few days for using the word “Allah” to denote God. (Seth Mydans, “Churches Attacked in Malaysian ‘Allah’ Dispute,” New York Times, January 8, 2010)

This dispute reflects religious intolerance of the worst kind. The word “Allah” is the Arabic word for God. Arabic speaking Jews, Christians, and Muslims all address the divinity they worship as Allah. In other words, Muslims protesting the Christian use of the word Allah as a form of address for God are ignorant of the word’s meaning and use in locales where Arabic is the native language.

Furthermore, the Koran traces the development of Islam from Judaism through Christianity. Mohammed explicitly worshiped the same God as did contemporary Jews and Christians. The Jewish prophets and Jesus are precursors to the man whom Muslims believe to be the last of the prophets, Mohammed himself. Not only are the Malaysian protesters linguistically ignorant, the protesters are theologically ignorant of their own religion.

Unfortunately, ignorance births bigotry. Ignorance coupled with self-centered aggrandizement births aggressive bigotry of the type evidenced by the Muslims protesting the Christian use of the word “Allah” in Malaysia.

I have had similar discussions with rabid Christian bigots who denounce Muslims as heathen. When I explain that the word “Allah” means God, that the God whom Mohammed worshiped is the God of the Bible, and that the Arabic speaking Jews and Christians refer to God as Allah, my explanations generally fall on deaf on ears.

Truth does not, cannot, set one free unless one is open to receive truth. This is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all with respect to bigotry. The bigot is spiritually dead, does not know that, and unable to come alive, having firmly closed his/her mind against any ideas or facts that do not fit the person’s preconceived, usually hateful, and always severely distorted view of reality.

Instead, I’ve seen bigotry transformed into life only through human relationships that build trust and reveal a common humanity that transcends the differences. This seems to hold for racial bigots, gender orientation bigots, and religious bigots. The persons whose understanding of the common heritage of Jews, Christians, and Muslims that I have successfully helped broaden have been people with whom I had a pre-existing relationship of respect and trust.

Although one can force compliance with official policies, regulations, and laws, compliance does little to alter the bigot’s views in the short run. Compliance, either voluntary or coerced, appropriately ends wrongful discrimination and to that extent constitutes positive change. However, ending bigotry also requires changing hearts, a much more time consuming and personally taxing endeavor.