1 post tagged “dutch”
TESTING THE FAITH
Bishop urges Christians to call God 'Allah'
Catholic leader believes it would help ease tensions between religions
Posted: August 15, 2007
3:28 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.comCatholic churches in the Netherlands should use the name Allah for God to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians, says a Dutch bishop.
Bishop Tiny Muskens (Courtesy Radio Netherlands Worldwide)Tiny Muskens, the bishop of Breda, told the Dutch TV program "Network" Monday night he believes God doesn't mind what he is called, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported.
The Almighty is above such "discussion and bickering," he insisted.
Muskens points to Indonesia, where he served 30 years ago, as an example for Dutch churches. Christians in the Middle East also use the term Allah for God.
"Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa (Almighty God) for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years," Muskens said. "In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can't we start doing that together?"
Muskens thinks it could take another 100 years, but eventually the name Allah will be used by Dutch churches, promoting rapprochement between the two religions, he said, according to Radio Netherlands.
However, a survey published today in the Netherlands' largest newspaper, De Telegraaf, showed 92 percent of the more than 4,000 people polled oppose the bishop's view, the Associated Press reported.
(Story continues below)
Some letters to the paper were filled with ridicule for the bishop.
"Sure. Lets call God Allah. Lets then call a church a mosque and pray five times a day. Ramadan sounds like fun," wrote Welmoet Koppenhol.
The chairman of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Gerrit de Fijter, told the Dutch paper he welcomed any attempt to "create more dialogue," according to the AP. But he said, "Calling God 'Allah' does no justice to Western identity. I see no benefit in it."
A Muslim spokesman, for Amsterdam's union of Moroccan mosques, said Muslims had not asked for such a gesture from Christians, the AP reported.
Tensions with the Netherlands' 1-million-strong Muslim community have been high since the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim avenging a film critical of Islam.
Last week, politician Geert Wilders talked about banning the Quran, shortly after the head of a group of former Muslims, Ehsan Jami, compared Islam's prophet Muhammad with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Muskens made similar remarks several year ago about using the name of Allah, Radio Netherlands reported. He also suggested replacing the national Christian holiday Whit Monday – celebrated the day after Pentecost – with an Islamic religious day.
The bishop also has offended Muslims, saying in 2005 Islam was a religion without a future because it has too many violent aspects
Ok, so when I said I'd ridicule another faith, I didn't really think it would be my own. And of course, it's not actually my faith that's on the block here. But this representative of my faith deserves some ire.
Firstly, the point I want to make is the one made by the Protestant. Simply calling God "Allah" does nothing to encourage mutual respect and deference...the actual goal and the point in which Islam is lacking. To simply give up our Western identity because we know a bunch of Mecca-lovers are going to throw a tantrum is spineless.
Which brings me to the point in which Christianity is lacking: too much deference to a faith which doesn't deserve it. In fact, I'd like to see more criticism like that levied by my pope, though after the riots that more than likely won't happen. Because think about it...Catholicism is attacked almost daily, its precepts misrepresented in the media and its priests slandered because of the actions of a few. I've always been a believer that turning the cheek needs to give way to institutional survival, and Catholicism needs to grow a pair.
Forgive my earthiness, but it galls me that we can sit in little circles and talk about how we've got things right and we need to enlighten our Protestant bretheren and those of other faiths, and yet when Islam starts whining we have a bishop who advocates adoption of the Muslim name for God. In a misguided attempt to appease our enemies (let's face it, we're in competition here) that would weaken our distinctive Western characteristics. His point that the Church in Asia uses the name "Allah" is not relevant to the Church in the West.
I think that the time for nancy-boy Christianity has passed. It never actually had a time given to it, rather I feel my faith has been usurped by short-sighted institutional martyrs who want to embrace the oblivion that is relativism. On my blog I'm often accused of bigotry...how can believing that I am right (and by extension, that others are wrong) about God make me a bigot? I don't deny anyone the opportunity to come around to my faith. I have staked my claim to truth, and I refuse to compromise on it. Unlike this bishop.
One more thing: like most of the problems with cultural apathy, this is what seems a subtle and insignificant change. What does it matter if we call God "Allah" anyway? But it'll make it that much easier for the Muslims to make inroads in Europe. And I don't want that, frankly.
