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."
The Bishop may have had all the best of intentions but his words will only serve to creat more tension, not lessen it.
It is no big surprise that CAIR would endorse this stupid idea.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based Islamic civil liberties and advocacy group, backs the idea as a way to help interfaith understanding.
I read something from Debbie at Right Truth earlier and she hits the nail right on the head in her rant:
A Dutch Catholic bishop has suggested that Christians should refer to God as "Allah" to promote better relations with Muslims. Hey bishop, your an idiot. Where did you get your seminary training, from a magazine ad? Go back and read your Bible again and take a refresher course.
"U.S. law enforcement officials say they have identified more than two dozen "clusters" of young Muslim men in the northeast United States who are on a path that could lead to homegrown terror, ABC News has learned." (The Blotter)
Muslims in the United States are not happy living here. Hey, here's an idea. Get out. Go somewhere you will be happy. If you don't want to ASSIMILATE AND BE AMERICANS, than hit the road. You don't want to act American, dress American, live like Americans, shop, go to school, talk, like Americans ... Then why the heck are you even here? Why would you WANT to be here? You want to look different, act different, live under different laws and customs??? Then GO SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT.
Read the rest, she is right.
Assimilation has always been part of coming to America and being offered a chance to live here in freedom.
Freedom to practice your religion, not freedom to try to force us to practice yours.
Freedom to pray to your God, not freedom to try to get us to pray to your God.
Freedom to come here and live in peace, side by side with all other religions, not freedom to come here and create clusters to commit terror attacks upon us.
It will be a cold day in hell before we let Islamic Rule Govern OUR country.
Count on it.
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