I Don't Think So

A Bishop from the place of Breda has come up with a plan he says will make terrorists happy:

"Let's call God Allah."

Great idea, Tiny. (Yeah, the Bishop's name is Tiny Muskens. Weird.) We'll just call God by the name of a completely different God and combine all or our religions into one big religion like a big rubber band ball. And that will make Muslims happy.

But it won't. Statements like these show a great amount of ignorance of the Muslim faith and great desire to spread a very universalist faith around.

For one thing, Islam is not a universalist religion at all. Surah 9:29 says, "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the last day." And the Hadith says, "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him." (9:57)

More problems arise when the Christian begins to pray directly to Jesus. According to the Qur'an, Jesus is not the Son of God. Surah 19:88-92 teaches us that Allah has no children, Surah 4:157-8 tells us that Jesus didn't rise from the grave but that Allah brought him up to be with him. The central teaching about Jesus is that He is not the Son of God and not part of the Godhead but that he wanted us all to worship Allah.

Furthermore, one of the most important Christian doctrines says that those who are followers of Christ are children of God. What would a Muslim make of Christians praying to Allah as a father? Does this bishop think that this will make Muslims happy?

How well would the Lord's prayer fit into the average Mosque?

Father who art in heaven.. (Allah has no children)
...forgive us our sins... (salvation is through works in Islam)
...as we forgive those who sin against us...(Islam teaches defeating and converting enemies)

And let's not forget intimacy. There is not a single verse in the Islamic texts that teaches that Allah is an intimate god, except for one verse that says Allah is as close as your jugular (vein) . Not the same God I know who cares for the sparrow.

In these cases, we find that Universalism is not so tolerant. A very casual glance at the different religious writings of Christians and Muslims shows Allah and Jehovah to be very different, but Universalists would have us erase our religious identities and all follow their beliefs while teaching that we are the intolerant ones.