From what I have read, the Allah of the Koran is distant and does not take calls. The idea that an incarnation of Allah (i.e., Jesus) would come to us and live a life like ours is not consistent with the Allah of the Koran in any way.

Muslims (some of them, anyway) revere Jesus as a Prophet but for them there is no 'Son of God', Allah has no sons and wouldn't want to send one here if he had one.

Again, this is what I have read and will defer to any Muslims who feel differently.

Bill, that's funny that you always complain about atheist bigots who intolerantly look down their noses at Christian true believers -- but this post seems to indicate that you approve of Christian
missionaries "confrontationally" converting all non-Christians in the world (this borders on calling for another Christian crusade)! This position reflects the most intolerant, arrogant philosophy, as if the spread of your particular religion is the panacea to cure the world's ills. Now you know why people like me oppose Christian thinking. This reasoning appeals to the worst instincts in people who feel that there is a world conflict of one religion versus another religion -- when the true tragedy is that all religious dogma is the root of the true problem. How is that for anti-Christian bigotry? Please don't ask me to be tolerant of intolerance.

TomJ,

I am unashamedly a Christian believer - and one who believes that there is only one salvation to eternal life, and that is through faith in Jesus the Christ. I don't apologize for who I am or what I believe.

Christianity - at least if you read the Bible fairly - claims exclusivity for itself. Christianity is either true or false. If Christianity is true - and, yes, unlike many in this post-modern age, I believe in the concept of ultimate truth - then it also is exclusive and followers of no other religion, no matter how morally good they are and how faithful they are, are following a false road.

Therefore, if I don't boldly share my faith and encourage others to believe as I do, I am - if Christianity is true - doing nothing to help them avoid eternal destruction.

The only atheist bigots I condemn are those who try to misuse the constitution to eliminate Christianity and Christian influences from public life and the town square.

Well, I'm one of the people who points this out (God == Allah), but I come at it from two angles. Oddly, I have yet to have even one person try to refute my point. Ever. Come on, Bill, be the first.

And here it is: take every reason why you think the Christian God is different than the Muslim God (note, we're English-speakers so let's use proper terminology) and then explain why those reasons magically don't apply to the Jewish God of the Old Testament. The reality is the the Muslim God and the Jewish God are quite similar, and in fact modern Islam looks a *lot* like OT Judaism (women are property, homosexuals are to be killed, don't eat pigs, etc.) (I'm not equating Judaism and Islam, by the way. The biggest difference is that Judaism is seen by Jews as an evolving religion, with thousands of years of thought and commentary shaping the religion (so that, for instance, women are no longer property, homosexuals are allowed to live, but they still don't eat pigs), whereas Islam is seen as set in stone and anyone who would dare question anything about it is a heretic who should probably just be killed. Judaism is non-evangelical, whereas Islam is evangelical to the point of using war to "convert" people. This is why Jews have little trouble living in almost any other society in the world whereas many, if not most, Muslims can't seem to integrate anywhere but in their own God-forsaken countries. Put another way, this is why most Muslim-based cultures are living in the stone-age.)

As for saying "Allah isn't God", well, a statement like that reflects a profound ignorance. I've been educating people long enough that there's no excuse at this point. "Allah" is the arabic name that is "God" in English. Look in your Bible in the book of Matthew and you'll find the name that Jesus used in aramaic, transliterated as "Eloi". Arabic-speaking Christians also use "Allah" as the name for God.

The proper terminology for those who don't want to appear ignorant is "The Muslim god is not the Christian God". It would even be proper to use lowercase "god" in the second part since we're using the word in the generic form.