GREAT MOMENTS IN IGNORANCE-BASED RIGHT-WING RABBLE-ROUSING, #328

Because, I guess, right-wingers aren't angry enough, and are so desperate for new things to be angry about that they'll settle for tiny little scraps of anger-inducing material, WorldNetDaily gives its readers this:

New York Times equates 'Allah' with 'God'

Newspaper substitutes name of deity in airport bomber's motive

The New York Times has equated the word "Allah" with "God" in a story it published today concerning the motive of an Islamic terrorist in the United Kingdom.

The Times made reference to a story originally published Monday in the Guardian newspaper, which stated: "Airport bomber's email to relative said he wanted to die for Allah."

The case involves Kafeel Ahmed, who crashed a Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal at Glasgow's international airport in June.

But in the New York Times' version of the story, the word "Allah" appears nowhere, instead being changed to "God."

The precise wording from the Times article read:

The person close to the investigation said that Kafeel Ahmed had sent an e-mail message to his brother two hours before crashing the Jeep, but that it was not opened until 90 minutes after the attack. On Monday, The Guardian newspaper reported that Kafeel Ahmed had sent a text message to "a relative" with "a link to an e-mail and a password to access it," saying he was acting according to God's will.

OMG! THEY'RE TAKING OVER! SOON WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO PRAY TO MECCA FIVE TIMES A DAY IN OUR BURQAS WHILE DRINKING SWEET TEA!

Er:

Allah ... is the standard Arabic word for "God".... Arabic-speakers of all faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word "Allah" to mean "God"....

Er:

Allah is the primary Arabic word for God. It means 'The God.' ...

And what about the 10 to 12 million Arab Christians today? They have been calling God 'Allah' in their Bibles, hymns, poems, writings, and worship for over nineteen centuries.....

(The latter is from the evangelical Christian site Christian Answers Network, citing a book published by an evangelical Christian organization called the Navigators.)

Oh, and the Guardian story actually uses "Allah" and "God" interchangeably:

According to a source, Ahmed says his actions were carried out in the name of Allah. Ahmed writes that his relative would be shocked to read what he is about to tell him about his involvement in terrorism, praises God, and says he wants martyrdom.

Is there nothing so trivial that right-wingers won't get worked up about it?

****

And yes, I know there was that Dutch bishop who wanted Christians to call God "Allah." That's just dumb,and it has nothing to do with this story -- it's an attempt to get people to change aspects of their worship that they have no good reason to change, and it's a silly misreading of what's causing our current tensions. This is about whether this guy meant "God" when he wrote "Allah." He did.