AMSTERDAM - A Roman Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands has proposed people of all faiths refer to God as Allah to foster understanding, stoking an already heated debate on religious tolerance in a country with one million Muslims.
Bishop Tiny Muskens, from the southern diocese of Breda, told Dutch television on Monday that God did not mind what he was named and that in Indonesia, where Muskens spent eight years, priests used the word "Allah" while celebrating Mass.
"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."
A survey in the Netherlands' biggest-selling newspaper De Telegraaf on Wednesday found 92 percent of the more than 4,000 people polled disagreed with the bishop's view, which also drew ridicule.
"Sure. Lets call God Allah. Lets then call a church a mosque and pray five times a day. Ramadan sounds like fun," Welmoet Koppenhol wrote in a letter to the newspaper.
Gerrit de Fijter, chairman of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, told the paper he welcomed any attempt to "create more dialogue", but added: "Calling God 'Allah' does no justice to Western identity. I see no benefit in it."
A spokesman from the union of Moroccan mosques in Amsterdam said Muslims had not asked for such a gesture.
Religious tensions on the rise Signs of tension had already surfaced in the last two weeks after the head of a committee for former Muslims was attacked and populist anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders called for the Koran to be banned.
Bishop Muskens, who will shortly retire, has raised eyebrows in the past with suggestions that those who are hungry may steal bread and that condoms should be permissible in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
Some Dutch Muslims welcomed his comments as a valuable gesture of support coming just days after Wilders branded the Quran a "fascist book" in the vein of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" which legitimizes violence.
Wilders, whose new party won nine seats out of the 150 in parliament in last November's elections, is well known for his firebrand remarks on Islam.
He said an attack by two Moroccans and a Somali on the head of a Dutch group for "ex-Muslims" had spurred him to write.
Issues of immigration and integration had faded from the Dutch political agenda over the last year, after a period of unprecedented social tension sparked by the 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh, a filmmaker critical of Islam, by a Muslim militant.
I'm sort of liking the idea, but don't think it would ever happen. There's too much pride in every single religion to accept that another religion is calling their god the same.
Post subject: Re: Call God 'Allah' to ease relations
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:32 pm
too drunk to moderate properly
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
Ah, Mohammed Christ!
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Post subject: Re: Call God 'Allah' to ease relations
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:25 pm
Reissued
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:38 pm Posts: 20059 Gender: Male
even if it would magically make the violence stop I would be against it... if you'd like to call him Allah then that's fine, but if you don't then don't... i mean i guess what i'm trying to say is that if someone is offended by it they are stupid assholes. that's not what i was originally saying i don't think but it's what i came to . i am really talking in circles here.
_________________ stop light plays its part, so I would say you've got a part
Post subject: Re: Call God 'Allah' to ease relations
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:28 pm
Got Some
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:40 am Posts: 2114 Location: Coventry
I'm all for it. About time people realised the problem with Allah is he's a God.
_________________ "If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them" -Karl Popper
Post subject: Re: Call God 'Allah' to ease relations
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:34 pm
The Maleficent
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:17 pm Posts: 13551 Location: is a jerk in wyoming Gender: Female
conoalias wrote:
malice wrote:
Didn't a muslim group kill a Dutch film maker a year or so back?
did you read the article?
actually, no. I didn't have time as I was just on my way out to catch my train from work and saw the thread title, read maybe the first sentence of the article and it rang a bell on a story I saw on this film maker being murdered etc, so I asked. I wouldn't have had an answer to my question until that last sentence anyway
Post subject: Re: Call God 'Allah' to ease relations
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:43 am
Menace to Dogciety
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:54 pm Posts: 12287 Location: Manguetown Gender: Male
Nah, portuguese already has a lot of loanwords from arab, i dont want one more.
_________________ There's just no mercy in your eyes There ain't no time to set things right And I'm afraid I've lost the fight I'm just a painful reminder Another day you leave behind
This should go over well with those people that were trying to setup a protest in Brussels to protest against the spread of violent Islam in Europe, but were refused a permit because of fears it would stir up up violence in the Islamic community there.
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