The Bishop isn't Catholic

While Pope Benedict may be Catholic, I doubt this fellow is--at least, not enough to be a bishop: A Dutch bishop wants Catholics to start calling God "Allah".

Speaking on the Dutch TV programme Network on Monday evening, Bishop Muskens [...] says it could take another 100 years but eventually the name Allah will be used by Dutch churches. And that will promote rapprochement between the two religions.

This notion is goofy for one simple reason: what Muslims and Christians call God is the smallest difference between their definitions of him. Their divergent views of God cannot be reconciled without essential alterations to one or both religions. Only religionists with a disregard of their faith's own tenets would ever see this change of names as a meaningful act of reconciliation. Of course, this may describe Dutch Catholics, which would be sad. It certainly seems to describe their bishop.

An afterthought: Bishop Muskens declares that "Allah" is simply the Arabic word for God. This is a gross oversimplification of the issue. The two words both denote a supreme being, but their connotations are radically different. To illustrate the distinction, consider the Hindu god Vishnu. The name "Vishnu" means (roughly) "the one who is immanent and omnipresent", both definitional traits of the Christian God. Furthermore, one of Vishnu's titles is "Narayana"--"the eternal man"--an apt description of Christ in His status as the eternal God-Man. By Bishop Musken's logic, we Christians may therefore address our Lord Jesus Christ as Vishnu Narayana. But no Christian or Hindu would ever accept such lexical gymnastics as a meaningful attempt to resolve the differences between the two religions!