Is Allah the same god as God?

last updated 8 January 2015

Netherlands

Editorial

A Roman Catholic bishop has proposed that Dutch Christians call God “Allah,” said the Apeldoorn Reformatorisch Dagblad in an editorial. Tiny Muskens, bishop of Breda, dropped that bombshell on us last week, during a television interview. He pointed out that in Indonesia, where he once served as a pastor, Christians call the God of the Bible “Allah.” The word is simply Arabic for “god.” So why, he asked, shouldn’t all monotheists call the deity by the same name? Wouldn’t it bring us all closer together? Needless to say, the suggestion didn’t go over very well. In a joint poll by two major newspapers, more than three-quarters of Dutch citizens “shot down the proposal.” It’s tempting, in fact, just to shrug off the idea as just another one of Muskens’ iconoclastic schemes. This is the priest, remember, who once said the hungry were entitled to steal bread, and who promotes condom usage to prevent AIDS. But there’s a real theological issue at stake. “The Allah of Islam is not the same as God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Muslims believe Jesus to be just another prophet, while Christians worship him as the Redeemer, the Son of God. Using the same name for two very different conceptions of the Almighty “cannot erase our differences.”