Today in Ignorance and Islamophobia: EW Jackson Claims “Islam and Christianity do NOT…worship the same God”

by Lowell

E.W. Jackson, the 2013 Virginia GOP nominee for Lt. Governor, is of course a raving lunatic and anti-Muslim bigot. These latest tweets are also utterly ignorant. Regarding to Jackson’s bizarre claims that “the ‘god’ of Islam” is not the same as the “God of the Bible,” and that “Allah” doesn’t mean “God,” see here and here. As it turns out, Jackson is yet again full of crap.

• “Pre-Islamic Christians, Jews and the monotheistic Arabs called Hanifs used the name Allah and the terms ‘Bismillah’, ‘in the name of Allah’ to refer to their supreme deity in Arabic stone inscriptions centuries before Islam.”
• “As Hebrew and Arabic are closely related Semitic languages, it is commonly accepted that Allah (root, ilāh) and the Biblical Elohim are cognate derivations of same origin, as is Eloah, a Hebrew word which is used (e.g. in the Book of Job) to mean ‘(the) God’ and also ‘god or gods’ as is the case of Elohim. Elohim and Eloah ultimately derive from the root El, ‘strong’, possibly genericized from El (deity), as in the Ugaritic ’lhm (consonants only), meaning “children of El” (the ancient Near Eastern creator god in pre-Abrahamic tradition). In Jewish scripture Elohim is used as a descriptive title for the God of the scriptures, whose personal name is YHWH, Elohim is also used for plural pagan gods.” 
• “The Aramaic word for “God” in the language of Assyrian Christians is ʼĔlāhā, or Alaha. Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word “Allah” to mean “God”. The Christian Arabs of today have no other word for “God” than “Allah”. (Even the Arabic-descended Maltese language of Malta, whose population is almost entirely Roman Catholic, uses Alla for “God”.) Arab Christians, for example, use the terms Allāh al-ab (الله الأب) for God the Father, Allāh al-ibn (الله الابن) for God the Son, and Allāh al-rūḥ al-quds (الله الروح القدس) for God the Holy Spirit. (See God in Christianity for the Christian concept of God.)”
• Allah is the Arabic term used by Muslims (as well as Arabic speaking Christians and Jews) for the one God, while ilāh (Arabic: إله‎) is the term used for a deity or a god in general. It is related to ʾĔlāhā in Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
• According to Pope John Paul II, regarding Christians and Muslims, “We believe in the same God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings his creatures to their perfection.”
• Accordong to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: “The Church has also a high regard for the Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth... They strive to submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of God, just as Abraham submitted himself to God’s plan, to whose faith Muslims eagerly link their own. Although not acknowledging him as God, they venerate Jesus as a prophet, his Virgin Mother they also honor, and even at times devoutly invoke.”
• More from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, quoting Pope John Paul II: “Dear Muslims, my brothers: I would like to add that we Christians, just like you, seek the basis and model of mercy in God himself, the God to whom your Book gives the very beautiful name of al-Rahman, while the Bible calls him al-Rahum, the Merciful One.”
• And still more from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, again quoting Pope John Paul II: “Christians and Muslims have many things in common, as believers and as human beings…We believe in the same God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings his creatures to their perfection.”