Roman Catholic Bishop: “Shouldn’t we all say that from now on we will name God Allah?”

The Netherlands is having just a bit of trouble with its Muslim population. Imagine you are a Roman Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands. How are you going to bridge the divide between Western civilization and third-world Muslim immigrants who are trying to change the Dutch way of life? Convert them to Christianity? No way. Ask them to stop killing people who disagree with them? Nope. How about you sit down with the Muslim leaders and ask them to get a grip on their peeps? Too demanding.

Wouldn’t it just be easier to start calling “God” by the Muslim term “Allah?”

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.

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“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.”

I think it is going to be your problem, Bishop. How do you give a sermon with such a severe case of rectal-cranial inversion? You don’t change your religion to smooth things over. Are you kidding me?

At least the Dutch have given this idea the heave-ho:

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.”

Exactly. There is no benefit from it, only more trouble. You don’t change. You demand they change. They need to assimilate to the country, or get out. Unbelieveable.

I hope the Pope has this genius on speed-dial. He needs to head to the unemployment line. What kind of Bishop throws his religion under the bus in the face of conflict?