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As a Christian, would I offend a Muslim by talking about 'God, who you refer as Allah?' I suspect I might, but if so can anyone tell me why?

All of the Muslims I talk to are fine with calling Allah as God, from my understanding the names are both synonymous. God just being a more westernized term of the arabic word Allah.

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Thanks for your prompt reply Derek

Many Muslims would take Allah as a proper name and God as a more general label but I haven't run into any who would be offended by you using the word God. Unless you are really familiar with them, I would say it's safer to use God than Allah.

Note though that if you start talking of Jesus as God or the Trinity or things like that, they will take that as a mistake on your part, some could be offended but most are not unaware of Christian beliefs to the point they would be shocked or anything.

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Marv
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Allah is a implosion of al-Illah(u), which means the God to differentiate the deity as the one and only God, over against any other god or illah(u). Before the Ka'aba was claimed for God by Muhammad, it was a place where various gods/ idols could be served. Muhammad saw the Christian God and the Jewish God as one and the same, and meant to worship Him using the word Allah, the God, which then meant the only God. The word Allah also resonates with the Syriac version of God's name.

The big issue is not how God should be named (the Arabic Bible, not the Qur'an, also uses Allah for God), but how God has been reveiled. As Christians we confess that God is triune, three persons of one essence (help me if my English is incorrect), thus the Muslim's picture of God is very different from ours. That is were we differ.

thanks for that.

The mean the same, but they are different languages. That is all.

Allah Huwa Akbar! (God is greater!)

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I just had a discussion with a friend of mine at work who is a muslim. We really got into a great talk about pretty much everything. We used the word God and Allah alot. I used God to refer to God and Allah. I used Jesus to talk about our God. And when I talked about his god I used the word Allah.

I hope I didn't offend him!