Catholic Bishop: Use "Allah" So Muslims Will Like Us

Can’t We Allah Just Get Along?
by Mac Johnson



In case you had any doubt that Western Civilization is mired in a crisis of suicidal self-loathing and pre-emptive surrender, a Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands has publicly commented that Christians should begin to refer to God as “Allah” so as to make Muslims like us better -- or at least bomb us less.

Unused to having their demands met before actually making any, a Muslim group responded that it had made no such request -- although now that it’s known to be within the realm of possibility, I’m sure it will be considered as a future point for increased “tolerance.”

The bishop in question is Tiny Muskens (“Muskens” apparently being the Dutch word for “cojones”), who professes to believe that he is fostering understanding between religions with his spiritual version of “Would you like me better if I were blonde -- or at least less obviously Christian?”

Perhaps rather than trying to increase understanding between religions, the Bishop (as a Christian priest and all) might want to focus on increasing understanding of, you know, Christianity. Oh wait, I might have just committed a hate crime with that thought. Please forgive me. The Bishop’s appeal for appeasement is said to come at a time of rising tensions between Islam and Christianity in Holland --“rising tensions” apparently being the Dutch words for “violence by Muslims.” Oops, hate crime.

One wonders where Christianity would be today had Christ had apostles of the same bent as Muskens. A concise history of the faith might read: and then, after Christ died on the cross rather than yield to demands that the message of his faith be corrupted, the apostles carried his message to Rome -- but nobody noticed since they decided to call God “Jupiter” and just tried to get along. Who needs the blood of the martyrs when compromise and groveling work so well?

Thankfully, the Bishop’s grand idea has been overwhelmingly rejected by the Dutch public, but it comes on the heels of other disturbing efforts to hide the horrible Christian nature of Christianity from Muslim sensibilities. As reported last year by the Brussels Journal, the bishops of Brussels opened up their churches as sanctuaries for Muslim Illegal aliens hiding from law enforcement in Belgium. To make them feel more at home, the altar was removed, the statue of the Virgin Mary was hidden under a cloth (burkhas -- not just for living females anymore!) and the churches were festooned inside and out with Green banners bearing the name “Allah” in Arabic script. Doubtless, this made the churches less offensive to the fugitive Muslims within. In unrelated news, church attendance by actual Christians in Europe is down for some reason.

At the risk of committing yet another hate crime by bringing up the obscene subject of proselytizing the gospel, I would remind the bishops that the Muslims in Europe represent a special opportunity for them -- unlike Muslims in Muslim countries, the bishops can try to convert these to Christianity without fear of prosecution by the government. They’ll probably get killed for trying, but then I guess that’s why bishops such as these seek to promote understanding between religions, rather than the spread of their own religion. Again, the apostles burned with the passion of the faith. Muskens and friends smolder weakly in the spirit of compromise.

Also, issues of core principle aside, does anyone really believe that Muskens’ gesture of subservient compliance would reduce tension with Islam one mite? Suppose we did call God “Allah,” there’s still the minor source of conflict that Islam is aimed in large part at co-opting Christians and that the Koran specifically denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, or that he was crucified or resurrected. And oh yeah, because the teachings of Jesus are thus considered invalid, there’s about a thousand other differences too. Lack of a shared vocabulary is not really our central problem.

And to be blunt, we could all covert to Islam tomorrow and it would not reduce Islamist violence in the slightest, since the only folks more likely to be killed by Islamists than us infidels are other Muslims. Would we become Sunni or Shia, by the way? Personally I’m shopping the Alawite sect just to maintain my reputation for being a bit different. Of course being a bit different is a capital offense to Islamists.

Conflict is always unpleasant and burdensome -- but it is not always wrong or to be avoided. If you believe in something transformative and significant, that carries consequences and can entail suffering. If your faith is deemed offensive, it is your duty to offend; and if your identity as a Christian divides you from others, this division is acceptable. If such thoughts sound too deep to have come from me, they didn’t.

“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." -Luke 12:51-53

There are worse things than conflict. Loss of one’s core identity is surely among these. More and more, Western Christianity seems embarrassed by its own existence.

I am uncomfortable talking about religion, both because I think it is a very personal thing and because I believe I make a poor choice of spokesman for anything Holy (hint: my beatification is not exactly pending). But when church leaders themselves seem embarrassed by their own faith and so eager to compromise its ancient traditions, something has gone very, very wrong.

Let us pray that, when necessary, God will save the Faith from the Church.



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Mr. Johnson, a writer and medical researcher in Cambridge, Mass., is a regular contributor to HUMAN EVENTS. His column generally appears on Tuesdays. Archives and additional material can be found at www.macjohnson.com.

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Dhimmitude, how pathetic . . .

 

Used to be I'd hear or read some nosense like this and think to myself "un-effing-be-lievable".

Now it seems like it's almost every day.
God - Doh! - Allah help us.

 

Allahdamnit!

Just not the same is it?

 

"Tiny Muskens, the Roman Catholic bishop of Breda in the Netherlands, says that Dutch Catholics ought to pray using the word Allah rather than God or its synonyms in Dutch. Muskens argues that it makes no inherent theological difference in which language one prays, and he notes that in countries where the word Allah is in common usage as a name for God, Christians already often use the word in their prayers. Adopting the word Allah, Muskens thinks, will eliminate “discussions and bickerings” between Muslims and Christians and so improve relations between the religions.

Muskens is right that, from a Catholic point of view, there is nothing inherently wrong in saying “Allah” for “God,” just as there would be nothing inherently wrong in saying “Miny Tuskens” or “Tuny Miskens” for “Tiny Muskens.” The problem, of course, is Tiny Muskens’ name is Tiny Muskens, and anyone who called Tiny Tuny or Muskens Miskens would be making fun of him. So, too, in theology; despite the conventionality by which strings of phonemes get their meaning, once names have been established, people who change them are doing so for a reason, and the nature of that reason counts in determining whether the change is reasonable or unreasonable, advisable or inadvisable.

In this case, even from a Catholic point of view, the name of God is not a pure triviality. When at the burning bush Moses asked God for his name, the Lord gave a very particular answer. “God said to Moses, I am who am. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations” (Exod. 3:14–15). Many devout Jews treat this name, especially in Hebrew, with such reverence that they will not speak it aloud. And when Christ appropriated this name to himself (John 8:58), everyone understood that he was proclaiming his own divinity.

...Our blessed Lord told his disciples that he was sending them “out as sheep in the midst of wolves” and so they “should be as wise as serpents but as innocent as doves” (Matt. 10: 16). I am happy to acknowledge the innocence of Tiny Muskens, but he is exactly the kind of sheep who, if he ever met a wolf, would likely get eaten by it."

 

Another fool naive to the point of absolute stupidity. Then again, he is a Catholic. Organized religion....we'd all be better off without it.

 

You could say "Yel'an allah"

word of warning...When you say it in front of an Islamist; ran as fast as your legs can allow you to.

 

why?? most arent bigger than 5'1" ...... actually I might just try it if i ever see one.... what does it mean by the way??

 

There is no exact translation but it almost means a damn on allah or a curse on allah. In regard to their height....You are kidding...Right???

 

Actually, God has no name.

Part of the reason is that He speaks no words, nor do any of His creations.

Words really don't allow God to be Who He Is.

Whatever word is used to Name God, it must be One Word, and must let Him be Who He Is.

Words are symbols made up for anti-creational purposes.

Words serve to disrupt communication which is used for creating.

Words were invented for division.

The world of division is obsessed with naming everything. In this way it seeks to make everything different, and make differences real.

In this way words fragment creation and take away its meaning and purpose.

However, on the path back to oneness, it is possible to use word-symbols to re-align mind to reality.

The path back involves reducing the number of names for everything to finally one Word for all things...one Name for God and His creation.

The God who makes this world is a God of division.

All three Abrahamic religions look to such a God...as also do their multitude of splinter groups.

Thus, the names they use for God are interchangeable. None let Him be Who He Is.

Those on a path to oneness look to a God who has nothing whatsoever to do with the making of a world full of men and their words.

Choose a name that addresses this God, and apply it to everything you see.

What you see now is not His creation, but rather a destruction of what He made.

But to fix it, you must apply His name to every seemingly separate thing, including yourself.

As an example, I am called "Jesus Christ", or, "Christ Jesus".

Christ is the one reality that all "things" share. It can be used to preface anything, for example...

Christ.WAEL012000
Christ. ElCubano
Christ.AAAintheBeltway
Christ.Spears.Brittany
Christ.Tree.Cedar.Tall
Christ.female.J.Lo
Christ.male.
Christ.Jew...
Christ.Greek...
Christ.slaveman...
Christ.freeman...

All names to the right of the dot are unreal images that exist by belief in a mind that believes it is separate from Christ.

To the left is each one's reality.

It does not matter what name you use, so long as you choose one name for all, and apply it consistently. This is for the healing of your mind. That is, seek not to change the world, but what you think about it.

I did not use the name "Christ" in my training because I did not speak Greek. But it is a word that describes a psychological dimension that all living things share.

That means the Mind that was in me is also in you. We differ only by degree of decisions made in time.

Decisions in time eventually all lead back to the decision to be as God created us, as one.

This is what it means to say, "nothing can separate you from the love of Christ".

Ultimately, all is love.

Love is holy because it is whole, encompassing and including all.

God's name is holy, but no holier than yours.

To call upon His Name is to call upon your own.

A father gives his son his name and thus identifies the son with him. His brother share his name, and thus are they united in a bond to which they turn for their identity.

Your Father's Name reminds you who you are, even within a world that does not know...even though you have not remembered it.

Repeat God's Name and little names lose their meaning.

Before you let the Name of God replace the little names of the gods you valued, you stood before them worshipfully, naming them as gods.

Repeat His Name and see how easily you will forget the names of all the gods you valued. They will lose the name of God you give them. They become anonymous and valueless to you.

Repeat His Name, and all the tiny, nameless things on earth slip into right perspective.

Repeat the Name of God, and call upon your Self, Whose Name is His.

Those who call upon the Name of God can not mistake the nameless for the Name, nor can they mistake bodies for the holy Son of God.

You can practice by repeating God's Name slowly again and still again. Become oblivious to every name but His. Hear nothing else. Let all your thoughts become anchored on this.

Remember, you are calling on God's Name and on your own!

Let God's Name become the only thing that occupies your mind, your only thought, your only word, the only wish you have, the only sound with any meaning, and the only Name of everything that you desire to see of everything that you would call your own.

In this way you give an invitation which can never be refused. This is the prayer God will come and answer Himself. He does not hear the little prayers of those who call on Him with names of idols cherished by the world. Such prayers do not reach Him because he cannot hear requests that He be not Himself...or that His Son receive another name than His.

Repeat God's Name, and you acknowledge Him as sole Creator of reality. And you acknowledge also that His Son is part of Him, creating in His Name.

Sit silently, and let His Name become the all-encompassing idea that holds your mind completely. Let all thoughts be still except this one. And to all other thoughts respond with this, seeing God's Name replace the thousand little names you gave your thoughts, not realizing that there is one Name for all there is, and all that there will be.

No prayer but this is necessary, for it holds them all within it.

Words are insignificant, and all requests unneeded when God's Son calls on his Father's Name. When he does so, His Father's thoughts become his own, and he makes his claim to all his Father gave, is giving still, and will forever give.

You, God's Son, call on Him this way to let all things you thought you made be nameless, and in their place the holy Name of God becomes his judgement of their worthlessness.

The universe consists of nothing but the Son of God, who calls upon his Father. The little things of earth disappear, and its little sounds become silent.

This communication transcends all words, and yet exceeds in depth and height whatever words could possibly convey. And this is peace eternal.

You can experience this peace today as you call upon His Name.

And in His Name it will be given you.

God has no name. And yet His Name becomes the final lesson that all things are one. This lesson ends all learning.

No one can fail who seeks the meaning of the Name of God.

The experience of peace must come to supplement whatever Word you use.

But first you must accept the Name for all reality, and realize the many names you gave its aspects have distorted what you see.

The many names you have given reality, to carve it up into little pieces, have not interfered with the truth at all.

Merely bring One Name into practice, and use it to unify your sight.

And although you use a different name for each awareness of an aspect of God's Son, understand that they have only one Name, which He has given them.

Use this Name in your practicing, and through its use, all foolish separations disappear which kept you blind. Using One Name will give you strength to see beyond the different names you have made up.

Thus, seeing is learned. And learning it, you can give it as a gift to all who ask you. And this is a blessing.

Repeat God's name and all the world responds by laying down illusions. Every dream the world holds dear is suddenly gone, and where it seemed to be you find a star...a miracle of grace.

The sick arise, healed of their sickly thoughts.

The blind can see...the deaf can hear.

The sorrowful cast off their mourning, and the tears of pain are dried as happy laughter come to bless the world.



Jesus