Do Arab Christians use Allah for God too?

As far as I know Allah,Jehova,Jesus,are all the same god but I could be wrong.

@SQUEEKY2 That’s not the question. The question is about the language, about Arabic.

The two Arabic christian families I am acquainted with say “god”

@ARE_you_kidding_me When they are speaking in Arabic?

Hum, not sure. I’m usually with them in an english speaking setting.

The word God literally translates to Allah, just like “tea” literally translates to “chai” whether Starbucks would recognize said tea as Chai or not.

Allah is not the Islamic God’s name, it’s just the word for God.

Yes, @JLeslie, Arabic speaking Christians pray in Christian churches to “Allah.” Just as Spanish speakers pray to “Dios”.

Just to clarify, I believe there is one God in the Abrahamic religions. The question was not about that.

My frustration is Americans not translating Allah to God when translating Arabic to English. Arabic whole speeches and written passages. I’m not talking about translating one word. I just wanted to be sure Christians don’t use another word in Arabic. From your answers they use the Arabic word Allah also. I hope that’s right, and you are not just answering from the perspective of, “there is just one God.” I think that too, there is just one God (again in the Abrahamic religions) I’m just talking about word usage, not a debate about whether the Christian God is different from the Muslim God.

If we translated from Spanish, “Dios hizo un milagro hoy.” We would write, “God made a miracle today.” If it was written in Arabic the media would translate, “Allah made a miracle today.” I never see or hear them translate Allah to God.

Is it the media doing this or is it the speakers themselves also?

I think it’s both rather than the media only trying to promote an us vs. them mentality.

When Muslims are quoted speaking in English they still use Allah. I’m assuming that it’s because it’s familiar and comfortable for them (even tho they may also believe it’s the same god, they still use Allah. )

@Buttonstc Good question. Maybe it’s both? Maybe they should think twice about it if they themselves do it? Are only the extremists doing it? Or, most Muslims? Do most Arab Christians do it? Or, just the Muslims?

“Maybe they should think twice about it. ”

Why? If it’s the same God, why should it be that big a deal?

I don’t have the answer to each question you asked but I do know that it is not just the extremists. It’s ordinary Muslims as well (like the ones living in Dearborn, etc. )

I’ve never (to my knowledge) personally met any radical Jihadist types so my point of reference is everyday run of the mill Muslims. They use Allah and don’t think twice about it.

I think you might be over thinking this a bit, imho.

Because American Christians (I’m guessing roughly 87% of the audience of national news consumers) would have a collective shit fit if someone suggested they called their god the same thing as “those sand n-words”.

@Buttonstc Why? Look at Q’s where Christians say Allah is not the same God as the Christian God. I bet a huge percentage of people think Allah is “their” God. Their, meaning the Muslim terrorist God. Their God, meaning not our God.

You don’t think the word matters? What if we say, “we are all God’s children.” That’s nice right? Now say to a religious right Christian, “we are all Allah’s children.” You think that sounds or means the same thing to them?

@Seek Do you think so? That’s a point I hadn’t really thought about. I was just thinking the people translating are just doing what has been done and aren’t thinking about the possible subtle impact.

If you are correct, then it makes it very purposeful why they do it, and I guess further prices my point in a way. The whole us and them thing.

@JLeslie

Well, now you’re taking an extremist example as if all Christians are going to react badly to ” we are all the children of Allah”

And, yes, I consider the fundamentalist Christian types as extremists. So that’s what you choose for an example? Come on.

I know plenty of ecumenical minded Christians who would not have a problem with it. They are actively trying to promote understanding between ALL religions ( Islam includedI)

Where did I say all Christians? I said a percentage of the religious right. The religious right is only a percentage of Christians to begin with, then take that percentage and cut it again. Still a decent number though. There are a lot of Christians in our country. Let’s say is just 20% of them. That’s millions. What? Maybe about 40 million? Fine, go smaller—10 million? Still a big number.

Why does Fluther always assume people are talking “all” or making sweeping statements about “everyone” in a group, even when there are very clear qualifiers in a statement?

I have heard the phrase, “There is no God but Allah and Mohamed is his messenger.” Do Muslims actually say this and, if so, how do they distinguish God from Allah in the sentence?

They don’t.

لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله

lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāh, muḥammadur-rasūlu-llāh

There is no god but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God.

There does appear to be a vocalised honorific in the “big G” God.

This came up in another forum. I was about to tell someone that “Allah” is not a proper noun and is simply the Arabic word for God/god, based on what I had been told in elementary school (back in the 70s, when attitudes toward Islam were different), when I thought I’d better look into it further before saying anything.

It seems the answer is complicated. Yes, “Allah” is the Arabic word for God/god, and Arabic-speaking Christians use it that way, but Muslims claim that “Allah” is the proper name of the deity who spoke to Mohammed (and Moses and Abraham before him), and in 2007 the Malaysian government passed a law forbidding non-Islamic usage of the word “Allah”.

@CugelTheClueless Interesting. I wonder if my FIL would have any history using the word? He is a Mizrahi Jew, born in Mexico, but his first language is/was Hebrew, and also used in the household was Arabic. His parents were never very fluent in Spanish. I don’t know if he would even remember if they used the word Allah, it’s been so many years. I would assume when talking religion or prayers they used Hebrew, so probably they used Hebrew when referring to God. It’s my guess.

That law is ridiculous to me about banning the use of Allah for non-Islamic usage. I have a Malaysian-American Facebook friend. I should ask her about it. It doesn’t matter if it’s ridiculous to me though, I’m not Malaysian Muslim, I guess they have their reasons. As you explained they may see Allah as the name of their God. So then what are Arabic speaking Christians supposed to do? Some of them use the Aramaic maybe? It sounds to me like possibly that law is just to remind the minority they aren’t the majority.