The Boring Made Dull Goes Global

I was just driving and listening to the BBC's World Have Your Say on WCPN. The subject was the recent suggestion by Bishop Martinus Muskens in The Netherlands that everyone start referring to God as "Allah." As the show is wont to do, they quoted blog reaction on the topic at hand. First up was from Akron's own The Boring Made Dull quoting the following passage of this post:

I wasn't aware that we got to name God; He names himself.

. . . the name of God carries a theological position. Allah isn’t the God worshipped by Christians or Jews. This is a distinction that every Muslim understands – Why can’t a Catholic Bishop get it?

When I read it last night I thought it was a nice turn of phrase. I also think it's incorrect -- the God of Islam is called Allah in Arabic and is the same God (or concept of God if you prefer to think in those terms.) The fundamental cleavage between Islam and everyone else isn't "There is no God but Allah," it's in ". . .and Mohammed is His prophet." Therein lies the rub with the good Bishop's kumbayaa by branding plan. So Boring and I take equally dim views of the idea, but from somewhat different angles.

But I digress. I thought it was a nice turn of phrase and distilled the conservative Christian viewpoint down to a compact couple of sentences. The thing Boring excels at and that frankly keeps the blog from living down to its name. Hearing the words of a local blogger and friendly adversary quoted on an international news program underscores the "Worldwide" in Worldwide Web.

By the way, World Have Your Say maintains a program blog and Boring's words appear on the post regarding today's show, but with no link. Bad form in any language. I exhort Ohio bloggers of all stripes to dish the link love liberally.