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From: basil@thyme.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Basil Hashem)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Why Allah?
Message-ID: <1991May9.115216.20409@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 9 May 91 11:52:16 GMT
References: <1991May7.223211.31482@wpi.WPI.EDU>
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Reply-To: basil@thyme.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Basil Hashem)
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Saad C. Himmich writes:
= 
= I really don't understand why people keep on calling God as Allah.
= Allah is just the arabic word for God. Keeping on saying Allah lead to a
= situation where non-muslims think that Muslims have a different God.
= Many christians I have been talking to have so many wrong ideas about Islam! 
= Allah is the same god that sent Jesus as a prophet. So why not say God
= or Dieu (in French) or Dio (in Spanish) or ... 

Good points.  I tend to use the word "God" when speaking English and "Allah"
when speaking Arabic, but I must admit that amongst many of us Muslims here,
we use "Allah" in English simply to distinguish ourselves.  We realize that
Allah is God, one and the same, yet we like to emphasis the unqiueness of our
concept of diety (the Oneness).  For example, I'm sure that when many
Catholics hear the word "God", the image of the The Father, The Son, and
Holy Spirit come to mind.  To them, this is their immediate reaction to the
word of "God".

As Muslims, we should be accomodating, yet at the same time not lose sight of
the fact that we are different in key respects. Is suppose it is an individual
thing, that tricky, and really depends of the situation.

Salam,
-- 
                                 Basil Hashem
                             basil@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov
            Jet Propulsion Laboratory     La Canada Flintridge, CA