Who is the god of the Muslims?

Larry G. writes:

We often hear that Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God. This is obviously false. As described by the Koran and other Islamic sacred texts, Allah, the god of the Muslims, is the complete opposite of the God of Abraham and of the Triune God. The God of Abraham makes the Israelites, later called the Jews, his chosen people, while Allah in the fiercest terms commands Muslims to kill all the Jews. Indeed, Allah commands even the forces of nature to assist in killing all remaining Jews on the Last Day. As for Christianity, the Triune God tells us to love our neighbor, while Allah commands Muslims to kill or enslave all non-Muslims who refuse to submit themselves to Islam.

Clearly, then, Allah is not God as far as Christians and Jews are concerned. Who, then, is Allah?

Well, we know that Christianity and Judaism do not acknowledge the existence of any other god than God. The only other supernatural being mentioned in the Bible as having an existence separate from God, and in opposition to him, is Satan. And since Allah is a supernatural being who is the opposite and enemy of the God of the Bible, are the Muslims worshipping Satan?

LA replies:

Before answering, I would add to your argument the fact that the Koran teaches that the most evil idea in the world is the belief that God has a Son. Apart from the possible exception of the existence of the Jewish people, nothing is more disgusting to Islam than the Christian belief in Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, because, as Allah says through his prophet Muhammad, it violates the absolute unity of God. So when Allah/Muhammad calls Jesus a Muslim prophet, that is not, as many naive Westerners believe, an ecumenic gesture to Christians, but an aggressive act of incorporating Christianity into Islam while pretending to be engaged in friendly outreach. It remains the case that Christians who continue to believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God, are enemies of Islam who must be subdued or killed.

As for your suggestion about the identity of Allah, it makes sense.

Not only do I agree with you, but the great 19th century Islam scholar and author of The Life of Mahomet, William Muir, agrees with you. As I’ve written:

After pointing out that Mahomet himself occasionally worried that it was genii who were speaking to him rather than Allah, Muir does something rather brilliant. He demonstrates, step by step, that Jesus’ responses to the three temptations of Satan were the exact opposite of Mahomet’s behavior. Whereas Jesus refused to use his divine powers for his personal advantage or for power, Mahomet often used his (false) claim of direct divine authorship of the Koran for purely personal ends (such as his various murders and marriages), and, of course, to make his religious teaching into an earthly, conquering, political force. In other words, Mahomet yielded to the temptations that Jesus rejected. Therefore, Muir concludes (and he calls this a suggestion rather than a dogma), if Mahomet was indeed inspired by a supernatural being, it was not God but someone else.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 30, 2011 05:23 PM | Send