Allah And God

Rabih Alameddine has written an interesting article in the Los Angeles Times concerning English words whose origins are in other languages; European languages for the most part. His principal concern, however, is with the English use of the Arabic word, Allah. Writes Mr. Alameddine:

Allah means God.

In Arabic, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians all pray to Allah. In English, however, Christians and Jews pray to God, and Allah is the Muslim deity. No one would think of using the word "Allah" to talk about any other religion. The two words, "God" and "Allah," do not mean the same thing in English. They should.

This isn't about political correctness; it isn't about language distortion. Altered or incomplete usage of words is natural, even amusing. "Confetti" in its original language means little bonbons or small sweets. And incomplete usage is at times explainable and logical. The words "beef," "pork" and "mutton" arrived with the Norman invasion. They refer solely to the meat, never to the animal, whereas in the original French they refer to both (mouton is both sheep and mutton). That is primarily because French was integrated into the language of the upper classes, which ate the meat, and less so that of the farmers, who raised the animals.

God, however, is a big deal. The word for God matters quite a bit more than what lands on one's table for dinner at night. We never say the French pray to Dieu, or Mexicans pray to Dios. Having Allah be different from God implies that Muslims pray to a special deity. It classifies Muslims as the Other. Separating Allah from God, we only see a vengeful, alarming deity, one responsible for those frightful fatwas and ghastly jihads — rarely the compassionate God.

[...]

In these troubled times, creating more differences, further parsing so to speak, is troubling, even dangerous. I suggest we either not use the word Allah or, better yet, use it in a non-Muslim context.

In times other than the present, we would tend to agree with Mr. Alameddine generally (but most decidedly not with his above last sentence). In "these troubled times," however, his idea is not only not a good idea, it's positively perverse and, yes, dangerous. If to non-Muslims Allah denotes "only ... a vengeful, alarming deity, one responsible for those frightful fatwas and ghastly jihads," and "classifies Muslims as the Other," it's not only fit and proper that it should, but absolutely imperative. We hope in our lifetime to see the dawning of another time when it won't be.

(Our thanks to the always indispensable Arts & Letters Daily for the link.)