Lets all call God allah

[skruu]

is this his way of saying Islam is the real real religion???

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."

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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."

A spokesman from the union of Moroccan mosques in Amsterdam said Muslims had not asked for such a gesture.


Click for related content
Live vote: Should everyone call God 'Allah'?
Islam in Europe: A special report



Religious tensions on the rise
Signs of tension had already surfaced in the last two weeks after the head of a committee for former Muslims was attacked and populist anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders called for the Koran to be banned.

Bishop Muskens, who will shortly retire, has raised eyebrows in the past with suggestions that those who are hungry may steal bread and that condoms should be permissible in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Some Dutch Muslims welcomed his comments as a valuable gesture of support coming just days after Wilders branded the Quran a "fascist book" in the vein of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" which legitimizes violence.

Wilders, whose new party won nine seats out of the 150 in parliament in last November's elections, is well known for his firebrand remarks on Islam.

He said an attack by two Moroccans and a Somali on the head of a Dutch group for "ex-Muslims" had spurred him to write.

Issues of immigration and integration had faded from the Dutch political agenda over the last year, after a period of unprecedented social tension sparked by the 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh, a filmmaker critical of Islam, by a Muslim militant.

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[BABYGIRL123]

I Didnt know Homosexuals Were Interested In Religion Skruu What Attracts You To This Article About Religion Any Comments.

[skruu]

tyrons girl i can smell your dry c.t from a distance didnt u had a golden shower from tyrone?

[FAH1223]

the unbelievers will deny it and hate it because its too hard for them

the bishop will become closer to our beloved Islam

[Grant]

I think my title for this article would have been "The Culture War in Holland", as it follows on Wilders' call for banning the Quran, etc.. Here is the line that does it for me:

"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."

The Bishop was calling for toleration but found little support. The attack on Jami has clearly reignited the religious immigration issue.

[skruu]

grant
i have always had issues when they call holland a "tolarant " sure its tolarant for gays and non muslims but not muslims

[FAH1223]

Grant

Muslims want to be ACCEPTED...not tolerated

[Grant]

Fah1223,

Toleration comes before acceptance. The Dutch are demonstrating they will not tolerate attacks on folks who have views contrary to those of Islam, let alone accept muslims who perform them.

Freedom of speech is a two-edged sword that requires logical argument rather than physical attack. Physical attacks in Holland are a losing proposition.

[skruu]

grant have u lived in holland?

[Grant]

Skruu,

No.

But I am familiar with the House of Orange and Dutch history.
I have a partially Dutch family background and have known Dutch people here in the States.

Other than that I am responding to the same news and figures you are.

[skruu]

what is partially dutch??

[James Dahl]

This is dumb, what different does it make what word you use if you're referring to the same thing?
The religious problems in Holland won't be solved through semantics.

[Grant]

Skruu,

My family name is Gothic. That is, it is older than the Dutch, German, Swedish, Danish etc. languages that derive from Gothic and is seen rarely but spread across much of northwestern Europe. The great grandfather from whom we take the name came from a farming family in a small village in southern Holstein, at a time when it was still Danish. But, because of early marriages to women of German nobility, and the coastal locations of those mariages in Germany, we think the family got to Denmark from Holland with the Hanseatic league. I have a little more Dutch blood from a family that settled in New Amsterdam (now New York).

My family is mixed Celtic and Germanic; that is, I have ancestors from all over northwestern Europe. I am what they used to call a "Heinz 57".

[DEMOLITION MAN]

Yep, he is closer to the truth