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Do Jews, Christians, and Muslims Worship the Same God?

Feb. 29 2016

In December, an evangelical college in Illinois suspended a professor on allegations of “heresy.” Her crime? Declaring that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. After discussing Muslim and Jewish arguments to the contrary, which date back to the 1st century CE, Peter Berger argues in favor of the professor’s assertion:

If one steps back from the important theological differences among these three west Asian religions, one may look at them from the perspectives of south and east Asia, especially those of Hinduism and Buddhism. The similarities between the three “Abrahamic” religions stick out more visibly than the differences. To be sure, the religions that emerged from the Indian subcontinent, especially in their most sophisticated versions, also point to an underlying unity beyond the many gods. . . . But this unity, disguised by the illusions endemic to the endless wheel of reincarnations, rebirths, and re-deaths, is far removed from the view of all reality as created by the one God whose promise is eternal glory.

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? The present interfaith etiquette answers “yes.” This is certainly useful politically in the confrontation with radical Islamism, and I would not deplore this use against a dangerous and utterly evil movement. But one can also answer the question with a “yes” for analytic rather than political reasons. Muslim tradition has maintained that the Quran reveals 99 names of God. . . . But the 99 names of God do not belong to 99 gods. All of them refer to the one God, whom Muslims, Jews, and Christians worship (even when they don’t like the idea).

Read more at American Interest

More about: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Religion, Religion & Holidays

The Summary: 10/7/20

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.

Read more at Mosaic