how muslims conquested spain//part 3

756 - 1031 AD Umayyads of Cordoba

In 750AD the Abbasid’s came to power after vanquishing the Umayyads. The first ruler Abu al-Abbas set about killing the remaining Umayyads who were mostly at Basra.

Ninety managed to escape, so Abbas explained that it was “all a mistake” and invited them to a dinner. When they were all assembled, the soldiers set upon them, flogging them till dead. A carpet was laid out over the bodies and the Abbasids feasted on the uneaten food. Only Abdul Rahman who did not go to the dinner escaped, and eventually turned up in al-Andalus in 756AD.

Abdul Rahman I had a 32 years reign and survived attacks from both Berber and Arab as well as Abbasids and armies of Charlemagne. Having both Arab and Berber as parents helped him to be accepted.

Hisham I (788-796) called for Holy War against Asturias and France, and assembled 100,000 warriors from even Syria, Arabia and Algeria, and attacked Narbonne and Carcassone and won enough booty to fund a new mosque in Cordoba

Al-Hakam (796-822) became known for the “Day of the Ditch” where he beheaded 5,000 converts to Islam in Toledo on suspicion of treachery

Abdul Rahman II preferred his Harem to Jihad and fathered 97 children

Abdul Rahman III (912-961) became one of the great military leaders, and in 929 named himself Caliph at Cordoba, and rivalled both the Abbasids in Baghdad and also the Shiite caliphate in North Africa.

Almanzor (967-1002) rivalled Abdul Rahman III as one of the greatest military leaders in Al-Andalus, and came to power after seducing Aurora, the wife of the homosexual caliph Hakam II. He beheaded 4,000 Christians after taking Zamora. He won the battle near Simancus and again beheaded about 4,000 Christians. Almanzor also razed the Christian shrine city of Santiago de Compostela which was to the Christians like the Kaaba was to the Muslims.

The Caliphate was eventually destroyed by civil war, Muslim against Muslim. Christian Castillians were even called in to help Sulaiman defeat 30,000 Moors at the battle of Cantich.

Cordoba and the Golden Age

When Abdul Rahman III in 929AD named himself the Caliph, proclaiming independence from the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, Cordoba had become the largest city in Western Europe and this ushered in the Golden years. His court was frequented by Jewish, Arab and Christian scholars all working together. Abulcasis (936-1013) wrote a 30 volume medical encyclopaedia and is considered the father of modern surgery.

The 11th century philosopher poets Ibn Hazm who wrote in Arabic and Judah Ha-Levi who wrote in Hebrew spent important time in Cordoba. In fact the two most celebrated scholars of Al-Andalus were the Muslim philosopher Averroes and the Jew Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) came from Cordoba. Maimonides, being Jewish, later fled at an early age to Egypt because of Almohad intolerance.

So civilization flourished in Cordoba while the laws of Islam were relaxed. Muslims, Jews and Christians (banned by Mohammed) worked together progressing science and literature, poetry and music (banned by Mohammed) delighted the Cordobans, and even wine (banned by Mohammed) was drunk for enjoyment.
So what happened to this “Golden Age”.

The Berbers, who held strictly to Islamic teachings, terrorised and looted Cordoba until the city fell and the Umayyad dynasty came to an end in 1031AD.

What can we deduce?

Only when Islamic law was softened did civilization flourish and science and art develop, but chaos and anarchy returned when strict Islam was adopted.

It is ironic considering that an arm bone of Mohammed is in the Mezquita in Cordoba, that when the arm of Mohammed was relaxed, science, philosophy, art, music and poetry flourished, but when Mohammed’s arm was tightened (Berbers), chaos and anarchy took the ascendancy.

This is a lesson not just for Spain today, but for the whole Western world.

1031-1248 AD Jihad continues; Islam declines

For some decades the Caliphate had descended into a number of Taifas or Kingdoms, which weakened the Moors and made them vunerable to Reconquista.

When Toledo was recaptured in 1085AD, and Seville had become the centre of Moorish culture, they sought help from North Africa. However the Almoravids were horrified when they entered Seville and noticed Jews and Christians trading freely in the markets, selling musical instruments and wine. A Fatwa was obtained and the Almoravids gained control of all Muslim lands and even taking back Valencia from the Christians.

This was followed by the even stricter Almohads who in turn fought and defeated the Almoravids in bloody Jihad.

But the Reconquista proved unstoppable and soon only the southern Taifa of Granada was left in Muslim hands, and it had to pay tribute to Castile.

1248-1492 Nasrid Dynasty; Islam is vanquished

Although the Alhambra complex had stood from the 9th century with the Alcazaba military complex, it was not until the 14th century that Alhambra reached its splendour under the Nasrid dynasty. Yusuf I (1333-1354) and Mohammed V (1354-1391) extended the building programme adding a Madrassa and a market and mercantile exchanges. The beautiful Generalife gardens stand as a lasting monument to the grandeur of Muslim Granada, with extensive water features which pay tribute to the technology of its architects.

Eventually Ferdinand and Isabella forced Mohammed XII (Boabdil) to surrender and he even gave them the keys to the palace before fleeing to Fez in Africa. Islam no longer controlled any part of Spain.


Conclusion

Spain provides a perfect example of how Islam is torn apart by sectarian and class rivalries which override the spiritual plane and result in endless Jihad.
There was Jihad galore, with Berbers and Arabs fighting the Visigoths, then Berbers fighting Arabs, Ummayyads fighting everyone else, Christian converts to Islam fighting the ruling classes, negroes, touaregs and Berbers against Christians, Christian soldiers fighting with Muslims against other Muslims, and the Almoravids and the Almohads fighting everyone else and each other.

Was there a Golden Age?

What can be concluded is that under the Umayyads of Abdul Rahman III, civilization flourished because true Islam was not practised, and indeed :

Jews and Christians Dhimmitude was not as severe, and they mixed with Muslim scholars

Literature, Medicine, Science and Astronomy advanced

Poetry and Music flourished (not banned)

Wine was drunk for pleasure (not banned)

Indeed, it could be said that:

“the Golden Age happened in spite of Islam, NOT because of Islam”.

When Cordoba was sacked, the scholars moved base to Toledo after 1085AD where science and literature flourished under Christian rule, NOT Islam. Scholars came from Europe to embrace new ideas then spread this throughout Europe.

Corollary
The stricter the practise of Islam, the more chaos and fighting occurred.

　

A Call to ActionThe West must learn from the lessons of Spain and realize that the Wahhabi form of Islam promoted and spread by the Saudis will never produce another “golden age” and that Islam must be resisted with all our strength. If we are silent, then the West will suffer the same fate as Cordoba did in the 11th century. .

how muslims conquested spain//part 2

Holy War or the Toledo Whore?

By 710AD, Jews and Christians had been in the Iberian peninsula for a few hundred years and the Visigoth king Rodrigo ruled from the capital Toledo. Rodrigo had earlier usurped power from Witiza after their father died, and ruled the peasants with a heavy hand. Now a story goes that Count Julian, governor of the city of Ceuta (near Tangiers) had a beautiful daughter, Florinda, who was invited by King Rodrigo to the court at Toledo. One day while she was swimming in the Targus river, Rodrigo noticed her beauty and invited her to the Royal apartment where she succumbed to the King’s advances. Filled with shame afterwards, she wrote to her father and asked him to take her back to Ceuta. Now Count Julian was peeved indeed at his daughter’s distress, and on return, went to visit the Emir Musa who ruled North Africa from Kairouan in Tunisia.

The Count persuaded Musa that Spain was ripe for plunder with greaty booty and beautiful girls aplenty for the Harems in Kairouan and Damascus, and because he knew the land so well, he would act as advisor to the Emir. Musa then received permission from the Caliph Walid who ruled from Damascus, and then chose Tariq, a Berber, who was a former Algerian slave, but now a fierce warrior and a recent convert to Islam, to lead his army. They sent a small force of a few hundred men on a raid, and when they returned loaded with riches and pretty girls, Musa was much impressed.

So the invasion of Al-Andalus (valley of Vandals) was not so much about converting the infidel to Islam, but the focus was on booty, women and slaves to be delivered back to Damascus. While the story of Florinda was probably a myth, some locals blamed the whole affair on poor Florinda, calling her unjustly the Whore (La Cava) of Toledo.

711-732AD Jihad invasion in al-Andalus

Count Julian led the invasion force of seven thousand men, mostly Berbers, to land near the mountain they called Jabel Tariq, or the mountain of Tariq. The name Jabel Tariq later morphed into the word “Gibraltar” as we know it today.

The first major battle was against the Visigoth king Rodrigo, and took place near the river Rio Barbate, which is in the Xeres district, now famous for its sherry.

Rodrigo and his army was no match for the fierce Berbers and were easily defeated, with casualties in the tens of thousands. Rodrigo himself is believed to have drowned in the river attempting to escape. His horse, robes and diadem were found on the river bank.

After this, count Julian persuaded Tariq to advance to Toledo, the capital.

On the way Cordoba was captured, and Toledo was easily taken. The booty was fabulous and included a gold and emerald table from the Temple of Solomon.

Meanwhile, when Musa found out, he was furious and afraid of being upstaged by Tariq, so in 712AD he invaded Spain with about 18,000 Arab and Berber soldiers.

On the way to Toledo, Musa captured Carmona, Seville, Merida, Malaga and Granada.

When Musa met up with Tariq in Toledo, he asked “why did you disobey me?”, to which Tariq answered “to serve Allah”. Apparantly Musa replied “Allah has been well served”.

So Tariq kept his head, but Musa was not so fortunate!
Musa returned to Damascus with tons of booty, Visigoth dignitaries as prisoners and 3,000 Spanish virgins. However, the old Caliph al-Walid had died and Suleiman had taken over. Being suspicious of Musa, Suleiman had Musa banished to Yemen, but not before presenting Musa with the head of his son Abdul Aziz who had been suspected of treason in Seville.

Historical records are sketchy, but it appears that by 715AD, Spain was essentially under Islamic control. However Muslim armies also raided north into France, setting up a base at Narbonne until defeated at the Battle of Tours in 732AD by Charles Martel.

Eventually the Berbers considered themselves to be superior to the Arab Muslims and so began sectarian Jihad, of Berbers against Arabs.

Dhimmis

Jews and Christians were treated as “people of the Book” and allowed to practise their religion, although as second class citizens and having to pay the Jizya tax. The severity of Dhimmitude varied and probably was most favourable under Abdul Rahman III.

Forced conversions were not common as money was needed to fund Jihad.
However, many converted to Islam to make life easier for them.

how muslims conquested spain//part 1

How often in conversation with a Muslim, do they quote Spain as the crowning achievement of Islam, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in harmony for about 800 years?

And when you mention the killings and massacres, you are told that the Spanish Inquisition was much worse.
This is a misconception, since the Inquisition in Spain was responsible for only between 4,000 and 5,000 lives.

Yet in 1066AD, in a single day, muslims murdered over 4,000 Jews because Vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela had risen to a position greater than them, and of course, this upset the Muslim sensitivities.

History tells us that the Muslim invasion started in 711AD and that Spain, or al-Andalus, was Islamic until 1492 when Granad

a fell to King Ferdinand, the Christian king of Spain.

Spain then provides an excellent case for studying how Islam might work in a Western civilization today. It is both timely and relevant to examine this period in history, and we know that after the Madrid bombings in 2004, Osama bin Laden has called for the retaking of Spain for Islam.

Certainly it is true that the Muslim invaders of Spain believed in the Holy Trinity, the Islamic version, of course, 1) Booty, 2) Women and 3) Slaves!

Does a critical look at history support this romantic view that al-Andalus was a model of Islamic harmony, and what does it say about Jihad?

Scope

We shall investigate the motivation for invading Spain, how Jihad forged what Islamic Spain became, how the so called “Golden Age” developed, the relationships with the Caliphates back in the Middle East and the treatment of the Dhimmis, the Jews and Christians who had already made Spain their home. Spain boasts many fine examples of Islamic architecture including the beautiful Mezquita in Cordoba which was built over the original church of St Vincent and opened as a mosque in 785AD. It is believed to have been designed by Abdul Rahman I with the help of Syrian architects, and later extended by Abdul Rahman II, Al-Hakim II and even Al-Mansur. One of Mohammed’s arm bones is supposedly kept in the Mezquita.

Other fine achievements include the Alcazar in Seville, but for mine, the pinnacle of achievement is the Alhambra Palace complex and Generalife Gardens that overlook Granada in the south of Spain, in what is known as Andalucia.

The Alhambra palace complex with its amazing Generalife gardens stands majestically on a hill overlooking Granada with the white painted Albayzin district below.

The Nasrid dynasty is intertwined with the continuous development of this complex over many centuries, and it was the fall of Constantinople in 1453AD and the Islamic practise of breaking contracts that brought its demise.
Islamic Spain endured through three major dynasties or Caliphates that existed in the Middle East, the Umayyads (661-750AD), the Abbasids (750-1258AD) and finally the Ottomans, but was never directly ruled from Damascus or Baghdad at any time.

　

Tunisia's Islamic leaders pressured by radical fringe

AFP - Tunisia's moderate Islamist leaders are under pressure from a radical Muslim fringe, forcing them to stress their liberal democratic credentials without alienating their base, analysts say.

Ultra-conservative Salafists have in past months launched bold challenges -- demanding full-face veils for female university students, castigating a TV channel for a "blasphemous" film and beating up journalists at a protest.

Their actions have heightened tensions in the north African country that was under secular rule for decades until the overthrow a year ago of strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali kicked off the Arab Spring and led to elections in October.

Moderate Islamist Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who took power in December, has this week adopted a firmer tone, while his Ennahda party also took unusually clear positions against the extremist religious activists.

On Tuesday, the authorities intervened to end a two months old sit-in protest by Salafists on a university campus, the faculty of letters at Manouba, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the capital Tunis.

The students, most of whom were not enrolled at the university, had camped out there since November to demand the right for women students to wear the full veil, known as the niqab, and for a place of prayer on campus.

Police removed them on the first day of delayed exams. The university had banned the niqab citing security concerns if students wore it with a flowing garment, which would conceal them from head to toe.

Also this week, Ennahda in an unprecedented statement affirmed its commitment to free expression and dissociated itself from a legal action lawyers close to Islamist groups launched against the privately-owned Nessma satellite TV station.

The religious protesters were outraged, and the station was attacked, after it screened the animated French-Iranian film "Persepolis" in which god is shown as a white-bearded man. Islam forbids depictions of religious figures.

Nessma TV director Nabil Karoui, whose house was attacked by protesters, is due to go on trial in April on morality charges for airing the movie. In previous hearings, his supporters were assaulted outside the court.

The prime minister in a speech to the national assembly this week stressed his determination "to enforce the law" and denounced the beatings of journalists.

"The government is worried," said Ali Laidi Ben Mansour, editor in chief of Nessma and of news site webmanagercenter. "From my point of view, a confrontation is looming between the 'moderate Islamists' of Ennahda and the radical Salafists.

"Until now the Salafists -- who are certainly a minority but capable of mobilizing and acting -- have taken advantage of the government's hesitation."

He said Ennahda has no deep interest in facing up to this problem, which highlights that the party itself is "torn between hawks and doves".

The Salafists have a hard core of about 200 people but 5,000-7,000 supporters, including backers of Ben Ali's dissolved party, according to estimates.

"The fact remains that much of the base for Ennahda is close to that doctrine," said researcher Alaya Allani, specialist in Islamic movements in North Africa.

Suddenly, Tunisia's ruling Islamist party "finds itself in a very difficult situation," said the researcher. "It does not want go to war with the Salafists, because it does not want to lose that base before the next election.

"But it won't be able to maintain its stance of ambiguity much longer."

The party's "balancing act" won't be able to continue for long, argued the site Businessnews.com.tn on Wednesday.

Slah Ourimi, a lawyer with the Tunisian League for Human Rights, said the signals the government and Ennahda are sending are still "too timid" while the extreme right was "launching trial balloons and "testing" Tunisian society.

"Students being assaulted, journalists beaten, exams disrupted -- what is happening is very serious and very dangerous," Ourimi said.

"The government has taken small steps in recent days. But we want a clear, determined position and that the government stands up completely to these radical groups that are against the republic and against democracy."

Denmark: Millions sent abroad to finance terrorism

Jakob Scharf, head of the Danish Security Service (PET), said Tuesday that terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab get funds from Denmark.

"PET estimates that around 20 million kroner (~$3.5m) are collected every year in Denmark to finance terrorist groups abroad," he said. This is only an estimation.

In recent years Danish courts handled three cases of terrorism-financing. The cases involved people and associations who supported rebel movements in Colombia and Palestine with an overall sum of less than 150,000 kroner.

PET estimates that the groups who enjoy the Danish millions include groups in conflict zones like Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine and Somalia.

PET says it's often difficult to prove money transactions are related to terrorism because the terrorist networks use many middlemen. However , PET does say that various people have been stopped at airports on their way to conflict zones with large amounts of money

tow converts to christianity stabbed in norway

Two Iranians who converted from Islam to Christianity were stabbed by masked me in Haugesund last week. The attacker shouted 'Kuffar' (Arabic for non-believer) during the attack.

The attack happened Tuesday evening, when both Christian Iranians were out walking in Haugesund. They were suddenly attacked by three masked men armed with knives, who shouted 'kuffar' while they stabbed the two.

A nurse passing by gave first aid and then an ambulance brought them to hospital, reports Haugesunds Avis.

According to the police, one of the victims was stabbed twice in the back and the other was stabbed in his side. No perpetrators have been caught.

The two victims want to remain anonymous and have not spoken of the assault. They've lived in Norway for many years. One of them converted in Norway, the other did so in Iran and managed to flee to Norway after he was abused and imprisoned for his faith.

They're both active in a local evangelical church.

'They've very active in the community, and have also bore witness to their faith during meetings,' says their pastor, who also wants to remain anonymous, since he often travels to Muslim countries where Christians are persecuted.

He's certain that the attack was religiously motivated. "I'm totally sure of it. Since the attackers shouted 'kuffar' during the attack, I have no doubt about it."

He says he didn't expect such things to happen in Haugesund. "It's very dramatic and surprising. I didn't take that into account. I hadn't heard of threats against any coverts in the area

Christians have been jailed in Saudi Arabia for worshiping

Thirty-five Christians have been jailed in Saudi Arabia for worshiping in their own homes according to a recent report. The news only surfaced this week that the Christians have been imprisoned for over a month.

Jonathan Racho of

International Christian Concern says it is no wonder that Christians there worship in their homes because of the danger they face.

"In Saudi Arabia there is no church," says the ICC spokesman. "There is no other place of worship other than mosques -- so the Christians in Saudi Arabia only gather at their private homes to worship. And when they worship, as you can see in this particular example, they could also be arrested."

Racho was able to talk with one of the female prisoners by phone and explains that prisoners are suffering because of lack of proper medical attention. "They told me that especially the male prisoners have been assaulted by the Saudi officials," he shares.

One of the prisoners told Racho that a Saudi official insulted them by telling them they are non-believers, animals, and supporters of America.

He adds the Christians are waiting for justice, which to them means their release from prison and the ability to worship freely.

Nigeria muslim sect leader threatens school bombings

The leader of a radical Islamist sect launching increasingly bloody attacks in Nigeria has rejected offers for a negotiated peace, instead promising to kidnap government officials' family members and bomb schools, according to an internet audio message allegedly posted by the group.

The message by Imam Abubakar Shekau of the sect known as Boko Haram comes amid continuing unrest in north Nigeria following the group's attack in Kano that killed at least 185 people. A daylight attack on Muslim traders in the north killed 15 people, while gunmen also have kidnapped a German there.

Shekau's 40-minute message also for the first time discusses Boko Haram's goal: Complete adoption of Islam across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people split largely between a Christian south and a Muslim north. And Shekau said he remains prepared to order more violence to accomplish that.

"If (Nigerian security forces) are going to places of worship and destroying them, like mosques and Quranic schools, you have primary schools as well, you have secondary schools and universities and we will start bombing them," Shekau said.

"Touch us and see. That is what we will do."

The video posted to YouTube on Wednesday shows a still image of Shekau sitting on a beige sofa, a Kalashnikov rifle at his back. Speaking at times in Arabic, English and the Hausa language of Nigeria's north, Shekau said negotiations suggested by President Goodluck Jonathan between the sect and the government will not happen.

"He's lying. He cannot do it," Shekau said. "If Jonathan does not repent as a Muslim, even if I die myself, Jonathan's going to see. He's looking at me like I'm nobody, but he'll see."

In the message, Shekau acknowledged that Boko Haram carried out the Jan. 20 attacks in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city, that killed at least 185 people. Gunmen from the sect armed with explosives and assault rifles, some wearing army and police uniforms, others suicide car bombers, attacked police stations, immigration offices and the local headquarters of Nigeria' secret police.

However, Shekau denied killing civilians in the attack, claiming the sect's gunmen tried to protect the more than 9 million people who live in the important city in Nigeria's north. Government officials have said many of those killed by the sect were Muslim civilians.

"We're killing police officers, we're killing soldiers and other government people who are fighting Allah and Christians who are killing Muslims and talking badly about our Islamic religion," Shekau said. "I am not against anyone, but if Allah asks me to kill someone, I will kill him and I will enjoy killing him like I am killing a chicken."

Shekau also said the sect's attack on Kano came after the arrests, and in some cases torture, of sect members' wives and children. Nigeria's federal police often arrest family members to force those they want into turning themselves over to authorities.

The Associated Press could not immediately verify the authenticity of the recording, though it sounded like others attributed to Shekau in the past.

Boko Haram wants to implement strict Shariah law and avenge the deaths of Muslims killed in religious and ethnic violence across Nigeria. The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north, has now killed at least 262 people in 2012, more than half of the at least 510 people the sect killed in all of 2011, according to an Associated Press count.

The sect also began specifically targeting Christians living in the north at the start of the year, exploiting already existing tensions between the two religions in a nation where religious and ethnic rioting has killed thousands in recent years.

The attack by Boko Haram comes during continued unrest across Nigeria's north. In Kano, gunmen kidnapped a German citizen Thursday working for Dantata & Sawoe Construction Company Ltd.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told journalists Friday that the embassy and a ministry crisis unit were working hard to resolve the case.

"I can't yet report any substantial progress," Peschke said.

Meanwhile, Zamfara state spokesman Ibrahim Muhammad Birnin Magaji said Friday that gunmen killed 15 Muslim traders on their way to market. Birnin Magaji said the gunmen burned the bodies of their victims in a rural village in Katsina state on Thursday, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) from Kano.

He said authorities suspect an armed robbery attack, but no goods were reported missing

bOKO HARAM: Why Christians are fleeing damaturu, Postiskum

one of churches wich burnt

CHRISTIANS have been leaving Yobe State in drove, and this might not be unconnected with the incessant activities of the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

Mallam Musa Audu, a resident of Pompomari ward in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital told Sunday Tribune that at about 4:15 am on Monday, 16th January 2012; some young men numbering three and armed with AK47 rifles forced themselves into his house. According to him, they did not kill anyone but asked them to leave town first thing in the morning, warning that they were going to come back and if they met him or any of his family members, they would kill them. He said fear gripped them as most of them thought that was their end, but somehow the young men only warned and left.

He further told Sunday Tribune on Monday in Damaturu that he stayed behind to get the truck that would convey some of his properties as according to him; he did not think that any of his family would like to leave in a state where their lives could be terminated at any point in time.

“Taraba is at least a Christian State even though I am not a citizen, I hope to find peace and grow my children in an environment where I would be appreciated. You know sometimes you have to take a painful decision in exchange for your life. I am a civil servant, so is my wife; but when you see death and you were served and warned to leave; I think only a fool can think of staying back. Immediately these young men left, I called my elder sister who is married in Taraba and she asked us to come over, my family as I told you are already on their way and I will join them to start life anew.” Musa Audu explained.

Driving through the street at Pompomari ward of Damaturu, one would see the apparent desertion that has hit the street and several other environments that were mostly occupied by Christians. Sunday Tribune met some people who informed that some young men believed to be Christians were gunned down by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect at about 8:00 a.m. The Police also confirmed the killing of three Chadian nationals in Damaturu town by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram.

Speaking on the issue of Christians being subjects of attack in the state, the state’s chairman of the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN), Reverend Garba Idi, told Sunday Tribune in an interview that “two of the murdered persons were Christians, which brings to 14 the total number of Christians killed so far in Damaturu and Potiskum towns this year.”

A resident of Jerusalem ward in Damaturu, Mr. Marcus Duniya, who claimed to have been living in Yobe State for over 30 years, told Sunday Tribune that the security situation in the state is a thing of concern because people were fleeing owing to the threats being issued against Christians. According to him, many churches have closed as both indigenes and non-indigenes have fled to Nassarawa, Taraba, Jos and surrounding villages because they believed that they are no longer secured in Damaturu.

He said: “Look at the streets, everywhere is empty. I know that over 200 people have fled Damaturu. In my church; the pastor left without even informing us, we learnt that he fled to Jos and we confirmed it. We are still communicating with him, and from what he is saying, it is like he may not be coming back to the state.”

Speaking on the crisis since it began on 4th November 2011, Mr. Duniya said, “after the 4th November incident, they attacked Geidam town where they burnt five churches and many shops belonging to Christians. However, the good thing was that there was no loss of life. 14 Churches were burnt in Damaturu, five vehicles were burnt in Gadaka ECWA Church at Gadaka village, in Potiskum, which used to have the largest concentration of Christians in Yobe as well as the number of churches. You will recall that recently two churches were burnt while 12 shops in front of St. Peter’s Anglican Church were burnt by some Muslim youths. Also, one upstairs belong to an indigene of Potiskum, a medical doctor living in Ghana was burnt simply because the man is a Christian even though he is not living in Potiskum and was not even in Nigeria when his property was attacked. Three people were killed last week in Anguwar Dorowa after the killing of four Igbos at Texaco Filling Station.”

He said people are still fleeing the town because there were rumours that they (Boko Haram) threatened to go from house to house to search for and kill Christians and non-indigenes.

Mr. Marcus explained that only two churches; ECWA Hausa and ECWA Goodnews Church held services on Sunday out of over 30 churches in Damaturu. According to him, in Potiskum, they were made to understand that only one church out of over 40 churches had its usual Sunday service.

He said 21 churches were burnt earlier, and there was no assurance of peace from government because they have done only little and as such, nobody believed they could do anything in the future. “In fact they have not called on the Christian community in the state to commiserate with them. The governor has not visited any church or Christian community or non-indigene since the beginning of the crises, a situation that further made many people to be scared of remaining in the state.”

However, while speaking during the launching of the distribution of the Keke NAPEP, which was tagged “Bra-Bra Mungode,” by the state governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Geidam condemned the killings and attacks in the state, saying no one has the right to take a life in the name of religion.

He informed the gathering that it was not in the interest of government to inflict suffering on the citizens by announcing the ban on the use of motor cycle, popularly called ‘Achaba’, but that government took this painful decision in the interest of peace and to safeguard the lives and properties of the citizenry, who are always attacked by fanatics using motorcycles to gun down people.

He however, said that while some people hold the view that government is rather relaxed on the issue of insecurity in the state; he wanted to assure them that government feared no individual or group but that government has to carefully study the modus operandi of the so-called sect in the state and is acting to ensure the safety of lives and properties of its citizens.

He said sometimes he wondered whether God has allowed such calamity to befall the country as a result of bad leadership, and therefore urged leaders from ward levels to the state government levels to submit themselves to God in prayers so that God would deliver the state and bring back the peace it once enjoyed.

What is however apparent and incontestable is that the mass exodus of Christians from Yobe State has been on the high side and something must be done in time to put the trend in check.



Afghan woman is killed 'for giving birth to a girl'

Wali Hazrata is in police custody.

She has made no public comment about the allegations

A woman in north-eastern Afghanistan has been arrested for allegedly strangling her daughter-in-law for giving birth to a third daughter.

The murdered woman's husband, a member of a local militia, is also suspected of involvement but he has since fled.

The murder took place two days ago in Kunduz province. The baby girl, who is now two months old, was not hurt.

The birth of a boy is usually a cause for celebration in Afghanistan but girls are generally seen as a burden.

Some women in Afghanistan are abused if they fail to give birth to boys. And this is just the latest in a series of high-profile crimes against women in the country.

Late last year a horrifying video emerged of the injuries suffered by a 15-year-old child bride who was locked up and tortured by her husband.

'Crime against humanity'

This murder took place in the village of Mahfalay, in the district of Khanabad in Kunduz.

Khanabad's police chief, Sufi Habib, told the BBC that "the mother gave birth to a third girl two months ago. The husband and mother-in-law strangled her for giving birth to a third daughter".

Senior officials told the BBC that the mother-in-law, known as Wali Hazrata, tied the feet of the 22-year old woman, who was known as Stori, while Stori's husband strangled her.

He is thought to be a fighter with an illegal armed militia which is believed to have some political support. Local villagers say that Stori often urged her husband to lay down his arms.

"She lived in a hell not a house. But then she also asked her husband to stay home and avoid going out with these thugs," one neighbour who wished to remain anonymous told the BBC.

While militia groups have some political support, they have often been accused of violence against women, robberies and extortion.

Afghan women's rights activists brought this case to the attention of the media.

The Director for Kunduz Women's affairs, Nadira Gya, condemned the incident saying: "it was a brutal crime committed against an innocent woman".

Local religious and tribal elders in the district also condemned the killing, saying it was an act of ignorance, and calling it a crime against Islam, humanity and women.

They called for immediate punishment. Wali Hazrata appears to have made no public comment as yet

Ethiopian Christians to be deported from Saudi Arabia

Some 35 Ethiopian Christians face deportation from Saudi Arabia for "illicit mingling", the global rights body Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

Police arrested the group - including 29 women - after raiding a prayer meeting in the second city of Jeddah.

The women were subjected to strip searches and the men beaten and called "unbelievers", according to HRW.

In 2006, the Saudi government promised to stop interfering with private worship by non-Muslims.

The group was arrested in a private home as they gathered to pray during the run-up to Christmas, celebrated by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians on 7 January.

HRW spoke to a man and two women by telephone from the prisons where they are being held.

They say they have been charged with mixing with unmarried persons of the opposite sex - even though HRW says Saudi Arabia has no law defining "illicit mingling".

Mixing of the sexes is not allowed in public - but normally permitted in private unless for "the purpose of corruption", according to the religious police.

The ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom bans the practice of any religion except Islam - but in recent years pledged to leave people of other faiths alone if they worshipped in private homes.

Ethiopia was one of the first Christian countries in the world, having officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th Century.



muslim who tried to rape Brit near Dubai police academy, caught

A big Afghan man stalking a British woman doing night exercise in the open air waited for her to reach a deserted area behind a police academy, grabbed her, covered her mouth with his hand and tried to rape her.

The woman, a visitor to Dubai, struggled hard but found that the man was too strong. She tried to scream but could not and the man begged her to stop struggling. Realising her attempts were futile, she decided to trick him.

He had already stripped her shoes and pants off in Sufouh area just behind the police academy when she pretended that she wanted to have sex with him. Once he eased his grip on her, she pushed him and fled.

After seeing passersby and telling them about the incident, they phoned the police. Two weeks later, the man was in the police grip.

“The man said he was seduced by the way the woman was dressed,” Dubai police commander Lt General Dahi Khalfan Tamim said.

“Despite the scant information about that man, police units managed to identify him, locate his whereabouts and get him.”

According to Brigadier Khalil Al Mansoori, Director of the Dubai Criminal Investigation Department, the Afghan works at a private firm and is apparently suffering from psychological problems.

“Perhaps this was the reason that made him try to rape the woman… he confessed that he was tempted by her sports wear,” he said, quoted by the Arabic language daily Emarat Alyoum.

Macedonia: Muslims Urge Restraint Over Carnival

Muslim leaders in Macedonia appealed for calm on Monday among community members outraged over a carnival in which Orthodox Christian men mocked Muslims by dressing as Burqa-clad women.

The incident at the Jan. 13 Vevcani festival has prompted angry, sometimes violent demonstrations by Muslims, who make up 33 percent of the country's 2.1 million population and accuse the majority of stoking hatred against them.

On Saturday, some protesters attacked buses and defaced a Macedonian flag and replaced it with a green flag to represent Islam. On the same day, a church was attacked by unknown perpetrators in the nearby village of Labunista.

In a statement Monday, Macedonian Muslim leaders called for restraint but also accused the government of promoting

Poor Moroccan girls are willing to do everything in order to get a European husband.

Said, a 21 year old tourist in Tangier says there's no talk of love, he says of the flirting in the streets of Tangier between locals and European-born youth. "In Morocco marriage has become big business. Singles no longer look for a beloved, but for somebody who will inject capital into their lives. Poverty is consuming this country, it makes its residents unemotional materialists. There is no future here for the Arab Romeo and Juliet."

Many dream of a life in another country, preferably overseas. Some adventurers flee at nights by boat to Spain. Whoever fears the water, tries hooking somebody from Europe. Tangier in particular is flooded in the summer by Moroccans from abroad, to the delight of many poor Moroccan girls. Without any diversions they offer money or sex for European residence permits.

Naima from Antwerp: "In the nightclub I met a Moroccan girl from Casablanca. Very quickly she asked me how much my brothers would cost. I answered her that my brothers weren't for sale, but she kept on pressing. She wanted to get out of Morocco. She was tired of the country and was looking for a boy from Europe. I joked that one of my brothers is asking for 10,000 euro. She couldn't pay that, she said seriously. After that she asked if we couldn't get to an agreement some other way."

Ahmed, a twenty-something from Brussels, is passing through Tangier. He's constantly confronted with desperate bartering: a night out for papers, sex for the right documents.. these are proposals boys from Europe often get.

"Ad nauseum," says Ahmed. "And every year it gets worse. They see as as walking residence permits." He says the girls aren't ashamed of what they do at nights. "It's downright disgusting and shocking. For some money or a false promise you get everything by Moroccan chicks. They're whores!"

The older generation of Moro0ccans thinks the youth living in Europe are no good. "They're westernized, also in their sexual behavior," says Fatima (70) from Tangier. "The foreigners imported their uninhibited sexual mores to Morocco and turn our youth onto the wrong path."

Of course there are differences in sexual mores between Morocco and Europe. 86% of the women in Morocco feel sexually intimated on the streets. The journalist says she herself got lewd comments multiple times while she was out. Even pregnant women aren't exempt, and her pregnant niece was accosted by a disturbed man. [Ed: this article is summarized and I did not feel like translating all the comments]

Everything in Morocco is done secretively, and Moroccan society shuts their eyes, for fear of family or sex scandals. "And yet the Moroccans insist that their country is not sexually depraved. I'm irritated to no end by the hypocrisy," says a Brussels woman. "In the hotel my friend and I can't sleep in the same room because we aren't married, but the Saudi sex-tourists can get Moroccan whores sent up to their room. The petro-dollars are suddenly above any modesty law. Sex tourism is flourishing like never before in Morocco. I see it with my own eyes, Morocco is a second Thailand



denmark: muslims are racist for sending chidren to private schools

Ahrendtsen was speaking to TV 2 NEWS, which reported that immigrant children go to private schools more than ethnic Danish children (14% of Danes vs. 15% of immigrant children)

"Arab, Turkish and Somali parents, they stick with their own. They marry their own, and they are not interested in meeting Danes and Danish society, who have reached out to them for 30 years," Alex Ahrendtsen told TV 2 NEWS.

Newspaper Politiken reported today that the number of children in Muslim private schools increased by 25% over the past three years. Cultural sociologist Christian Horst (Aarhus University) says that it's mostly the advantaged Muslim parents who reject the regular schools.

He told Politiken that those Muslim parents have gotten to the conclusion that the public schools aren't good enough and that their children deserve better.

Education minister Christine Antorini (S) doesn't want to point fingers are parents who prefer a Muslim school for their children.

"I think it's just as troubling when Danish parents reject public schools. But in relation to immigrant students we have a problem, that we can see, that public school isn't good enough to start them off professionally," she told Politiken

The pagan origin of the word, "Allah".

The pre-Islamic origin of "Allah"

There is absolutely no question that Allah was worshipped by the pagan Arabs as one of many polytheistic gods.

Allah was worshipped in the Kabah at Mecca before Muhammad was born. Muhammad merely proclaimed a god the Meccans were already familiar with. The pagan Arabs never accused Muhammad of preaching a different Allah than the one they already worshipped.

Many scholars say "Allah" is derived from a compound Arabic word, AL + ILAH = Allah. "Ilah" in Arabic is "God" and "Al" in Arabic is a definite article like our word "the". So from an English equivalent "Allah" comes from "The + God". Others, like Arthur Jeffery say, "The common theory is that it is formed from ilah, the common word for a god, and the article al-; thus al-ilah, the god," becomes Allah, "God." This theory, however, is untenable. In fact, the name is one of the words borrowed into the language in pre-Islamic times from Aramaic." (

Although "Allah" has become known as the proper name for the Muslim god, Allah is not a name, but a descriptor that means literally, "the god". All pagan cultures have these generic terms that refer to their "top god" as "the god". In comparison to the perfect monotheism of Judaism and Christianity, "Allah" was originally no more a proper name for the Muslim God, than the word Hebrew "elohim" (god) or Greek "theos" (god) are proper names of the one true God of the Bible. "Jehovah" is the only revealed proper name for the "Elohim" of the Old Testament ( Ex 3:13; 6:3) and "Jesus" is the only revealed proper name of "Theos" in the New Testament. (Acts 4:12) Islam has no proper name for their god, but merely transformed, by universal use and confusion, the generic Allah into a proper name. So although today, Muslims use "Allah" as a proper name, it was never used this way originally. Allah, therefore is equivalent to "elohim" and "ho theos" but not "Jehovah" or "Jesus". Allah is not the name of the nameless Muslim God. However Muslims will claim that Allah is the name of God that corresponds to Jehovah. Both the Father and the Son are called "ho theos" (The God). Jesus is called "The God" many times in the New Testament: John 20:28; Heb 1:8. An important conclusion from this, is that the mere fact that "Allah" is equivalent to "elohim" and "ho theos" does not mean they are directly corresponded. It certainly doesn't prove Allah is the same as the God of the Old or New Testament. It does not prove that Muslim's worship the same God as Christians. If this correspondence proved the Muslim god was the same as the Christian God, then because pagan religions also have generics that correspond to "the god" (Allah), this correspondence would also prove that Allah is the same god as the Buddhist god, for Buddhists also refer to their god as "the god".

What scholars say about the origin of the word "Allah":

It is not related that the Black Stone was connected with any special god. In the Ka'ba was the statue of the god Hubal who might be called the god of Mecca and of the Ka'ba. Caetani gives great prominence to the connection between the Ka'ba and Hubal. Besides him, however, al-Lat, al-`Uzza, and al-Manat were worshipped and are mentioned in the Kur'an; Hubal is never mentioned there. What position Allah held beside these is not exactly known. The Islamic tradition has certainly elevated him at the expense of other deities. It may be considered certain that the Black Stone was not the only idol in or at the Ka'ba. The Makam Ibrahim was of course a sacred stone from very early times. Its name has not been handed down. Beside it several idols are mentioned, among them the 360 statues. (

"The verses of the Qur'an make it clear that the very name Allah existed in the Jahiliyya or pre-Islamic Arabia. Certain pagan tribes believed in a god whom they called 'Allah' and whom they believed to be the creator of heaven and earth and holder of the highest rank in the hierarchy of the gods. It is well known that the Quraish as well as other tribes believed in Allah, whom they designated as the 'Lord of the House' (i.e., of the Ka'ba)...It is therefore clear that the Qur'anic conception of Allah is not entirely new." (

According to al-Masudi (Murudj, iv. 47), certain people have regarded the Ka'ba as a temple devoted to the sun, the moon and the five planets. The 36o idols placed round the Ka'ba also point in this direction. It can therefore hardly be denied that traces exist of an astral symbolism. At the same time one can safely say that there can be no question of any general conception on these lines. The cult at the Ka'ba was in the heathen period syncretic as is usual in heathenism. (

The name Allah, as the Qur'an itself is witness, was well known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat, are found not infrequently among the theophorous names in inscriptions from North Arabia. The common theory is that it is formed from ilah, the common word for a god, and the article al-; thus al-ilah, the god," becomes Allah, "God." This theory, however, is untenable. In fact, the name is one of the words borrowed into the language in pre-Islamic times from Aramaic. (

"If a Muslim says, "Your God and our God is the same," either he does not understand who Allah and Christ really are, or he intentionally glosses over the deep-rooted differences." (

Now there dwelt in Mecca a god called Allah. He was the provider, the most powerful of all the local deities, the one to whom every Meccan turned in time of need. But, for all his power, Allah was a remote god. At the time of Muhammad, however, he was on the ascendancy. He had replaced the moon god as lord of the Kaaba although still relegated to an inferior position below various tribal idols and three powerful goddesses: al-Manat, goddess of fate, al-Lat, mother of the gods, and al-Uzza, the planet Venus. (

Muhammad no more invented Allah than he did al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat. The Cult of the deity termed simply "thc god" (al-ilah) was known throughout southern Syria and northern Arabia," and it was obviously of central importance in Mecca, where the building called the Ka'ba was indisputably his house. Indeed, the Muslim profession of faith, 11 there is no ilah except al-ilah," attests to precisely that point: the Quraysh are being called upon to repudiate the very existence of all the other gods save this one. It seems equally certain that Allah was not merely a god in Mecca but was widely regarded as the "high god," the chief and head of the Meccan pantheon, perhaps the result, as has been argued, of a natural progression toward henotheism or of the growing influence of Jews and Christians in the peninsula." The most convincing piece of evidence that the latter was at work is the fact that of all the gods of Mecca, Allah alone was not represented by an idol. (

Allah, we can be sure, was neither an unknown nor an unimportant deity to the Quraysh when Muhammad began preaching his worship at Mecca. What is equally certain is that Allah had what the Quran disdainfully calls "associates": other gods and goddesses who shared both his cult and his shrine. The processional chant of the pagans of the Age of Barbarism was, we are told, "Here I am, O Allah, here I am; You have no partner except such a partner as You have; You possess him and all that is his." 103 The last clause may reflect what we have already seen was an emerging tendency toward henotheism, the recognition of Allah as the "high god" of Mecca. But it was not sufficient for Muslims, who put in its place their own manifestly monotheistic hymn: "Here I am, O Allah, here I am; You have no partner; the praise and the grace are Yours, and the empire; You have no partner." (

While Allah is best known as the principal god of Mecca, he was also worshiped in other places throughout Arabia as is shown by the occurrence of the name in Sabean, Minean and particularly Libyanite inscriptions." The Qur'an (xxix, 61) refers to the belief of the pagans in Allah as the creator of the heavens and the earth; and Muhammad's own father bore the name of `Abd Allah or `Abdullah, meaning the slave or worshiper of this god. In Mecca, Allah was worshiped in the Ka'bah and possibly represented by the famous Black Stone in that place. (

In Mecca, Allah was worshiped in the Ka'bah and possibly represented by the famous Black Stone in that place. (

Prior to the rise of Islam, these three goddesses were associated with Allah as his daughters and all were worshiped at Mecca and other places in the vicinity. (

Allah (allah, al-ilah, the god) was the principal, though not the only, deity of Makkah. The name is an ancient one. It occurs in two South Arabic inscriptions, one a Minaean found at al-'Ula and the other a Sabaean, but abounds in the form HLH in the Lihyanite inscriptions of the fifth century- B.C. Lihyan, which evidently got the god from Syria, was the first Centre of the worship of this deity in Arabia. The name occurs as Hallah in the Safa inscriptions five centuries before Islam and also in a pre-Islamic Christian Arabic inscription found in umm-al-Jimal, Syria, and ascribed to the sixth century . The name of Muhammad's father was 'Abd-Allah ('Abdullah, the slave or worshipper of Allah). The esteem in which Allah was held by thepre-Islamic Makkans as the creator and supreme provider and the one to be invoked in time of special peril may be inferred from such koranic passages as 31 : 24, 31; 6 : 137, 109; to : 23. Evidently he was the tribal deity of the Quraysh. (

When Mohammed proclaimed his creed: 'There is no God but Allah,' he was not trying to introduce a new God. His pagan countrymen knew and acknowledged this divinity. His name, Allah, occurs already in pre-Mohammedan times, both in inscriptions and in compound personal names like Abd Allah, 'servant of Allah.' The effective note in Mohammed's evangelistic preaching is that he is able to accuse the pagans of acknowledging Allah as the creator of heaven and earth, and yet failing to draw the only possible conclusion from their belief; which is, to worship Allah and none else besides Him. 'If thou ask them who hath created the Heavens and the Earth, and hath imposed laws upon the sun and the moon, they will certainly say, "Allah". . If thou ask them who sendeth rain from Heaven, and by it quickeneth the earth after it hath been dead, they will certainly answer "Allah"' (Sura 29, 6 1 and 63). When in extreme danger, especially on the sea, the pagans call upon Allah (29, 65; 31, 31; 17, 69), but when they are on land again, and feel safe, they share His divine honour with other beings. Allah is supposed to have given certain commandments and taboos to men (Sura 6, 139 ff.), and the most sacred oaths are sworn in His name (Sura 3,r, 40; 16, 40). Thus, even though Allah was not worshipped as He deserved, the cult of Allah was not entirely neglected. A species of tithing, or offering of the first-fruits of grain and cattle, was offered to Allah as well as to the other gods (6, 137). But, above all, Allah was apparently regarded as ,the Lord of the Ka'ba,' the God to whom the cult of the highest sanctuary of Central Arabia was dedicated. In one of the oldest Suras (io6) Mohammed urges his tribesmen, the Quraish, to worship 'the Lord of this house, who allows the two annual trade caravans to be equipped, and who cares for them, and permits them to dwell in security. Concerning himself he says that he has received the commandment to worship 'the Lord of the house,' i.e. the Ka'ba. Apparently, then, the Prophet and his countrymen fully agree that the God who is worshipped through the ritual of the Ka'ba is Allah. (

"The religion of the Arabs, as well as their political life, was on a thoroughly primitive level...In particular the Semites regarded trees, caves, springs, and large stones as being inhabited by spirits; like the Black Stone of Islam in a corner of the Ka'bah at Mecca, in Petra and other places in Arabia stones were venerated also...Every tribe worshipped its own god, but also recognized the power of other tribal gods in their own sphere...Three goddesses in particular had elevated themselves above the circle of the inferior demons. The goddess of fate, al-Manat, corresponding to the Tyche Soteira of the Greeks, though known in Mecca, was worshipped chiefly among the neighboring Bedouin tribes of the Hudhayl. Allat—"the Goddess," who is Taif was called ar-Rabbah, "the Lady," and whom Herodotus equates with Urania—corresponded to the great mother of the gods, Astarte of the northern Semites; al-'Uzza, "the Mightiest," worshipped in the planet Venus, was merely a variant form... In addition to all these gods and goddesses the Arabs, like many other primitive peoples, believed in a God who was creator of the world, Allah, whom the Arabs did not, as has often been thought, owe to the Jews and Christians...The more the significance of the cult declined, the greater became the value of a general religious temper associated with Allah. Among the Meccans he was already coming to take the place of the old moon-god Hubal as the lord of the Ka'bah...Allah was actually the guardian of contracts, though at first these were still settled at a special ritual locality and so subordinate to the supervision of an idol. In particular he was regarded as the guardian of the alien guest, though consideration for him still lagged behind duty to one's kinsmen." (

The god Il or Ilah was originally a phase of the Moon God, but early in Arabian history the name became a general term for god, and it was this name that the Hebrews used prominently in their personal names, such as Emanuel, Israel, etc., rather than the Bapal of the northern semites proper, which was the Sun. Similarly, under Mohammed's tutelage, the relatively anonymous Ilah became Al-Ilah, The God, or Allâh, the Supreme Being. (

"...a people of Arabia, of the race of the Joktanites...the Alilai living near the Red Sea in a district where gold is found; their name, children of the moon, so called from the worship of the moon, or Alilat." (

Al-Kindi, one of the early Christian apologists against Islam, pointed out that Islam and its god Allah did not come from the Bible but from the paganism of the Sabeans. They did not worship the God of the Bible but the moon-god and his daughters al-Uzza, al-Lat, and Manat (

"The cult of a deity termed simply "the god" (al-ilah) was known throughout southern Syria and northern Arabia in the days before Islam—Muhammad's father was named 'Abd Allah ("Servant of Allah")--and was obviously of central importance in Mecca, where the building called the Ka'bah was indisputably his house. Indeed, the Muslims shahadah attests to precisely that point: the Quraysh, the paramount tribe of Mecca, were being called on by Muhammad to repudiate the very existence of all the other gods save this one. It seems equally certain that Allah was not merely a god in Mecca but was widely regarded as the "high god," the chief and head of the Meccan pantheon, whether this was the result, as has been argued, of a natural progression toward henotheism or of the growing influence of Jews and Christians in the Arabian Peninsula...Thus Allah was neither an unknown nor an unimportant deity to the Quraysh when Muhammad began preaching his worship at Mecca." (

"That Islam was conceived in idolatry is shown by the fact that many rituals performed in the name of Allah were connected with the pagan worship that existed before Islam. ... Before Islam Allah was reported to be know as: the supreme of a pantheon of gods; the name of a god whom the Arabs worshipped; the chief god of the pantheon; Ali-ilah; the god; the supreme; the all-powerful; all-knowing; and totally unknowable; the predeterminer of everyone's life destiny; chief of the gods; the special deity of the Quraish; having three daughters: Al Uzzah (Venus), Manah (Destiny), and Alat; having the idol temple at Mecca under his name (House of Allah).; the mate of Alat, the goddess of fate. . ... Because of other Arabian history which points to heathen worship of the sun, moon, and the stars, as well as other gods, of which I believe Allah was in some way connected to. This then would prove to us that Allah is not the same as the true God of the Bible whom we worship, because God never changes." (

"In pre-Islamic days, called the Days of Ignorance, the religious background of the Arabs was pagan, and basically animistic. Through wells, trees, stones, caves, springs, and other natural objects man could make contact with the deity... At Mekka, Allah was the chief of the gods and the special deity of the Quraish, the prophet's tribe. Allah had three daughters: Al Uzzah (Venus) most revered of all and pleased with human sacrifice; Manah, the goddess of destiny, and Al Lat, the goddess of vegetable life. Hubal and more than 300 others made up the pantheon. The central shrine at Mekka was the Kaaba, a cube like stone structure which still stands though many times rebuilt. Imbedded in one corner is the black stone, probably a meteorite, the kissing of which is now an essential part of the pilgrimage." (

"Muslims are notoriously loathe to preserve traditions of earlier paganism and like to garble what pre-Islamic history they permit to survive in anachronistic terms" (

"But history establishes beyond the shadow of doubt that even the pagan Arabs, before Muhammad's time, knew their chief god by the name of Allah and even, in a sense, proclaimed his unity...Among the pagan Arabs this term denoted the chief god of their pantheon, the Kaaba, with its three hundred and sixty idols." (

"Historians like Vaqqidi have said Allah was actually the chief of the 360 gods [one for each day of the year] being worshipped in Arabia at the time Muhammad rose to prominence. Ibn Al-Kalbi gave 27 names of pre-Islamic deities... Interestingly, not many Muslims want to accept that Allah was already being worshipped at the Ka'ba in Mecca by Arab pagans before Muhammad came. Some Muslims become angry when they are confronted with this fact. But history is not on their side. Pre-Islamic literature has proved this." (

"Islam also owes the term "Allah" to the heathen Arabs. We have evidence that it entered into numerous personal names in Northern Arabia and among the Nabatians. It occurred among the Arabs of later times, in theophorous names and on its own." (

"Arabia in Muhammad's time was polytheistic in its conception of the cosmos and tribal in its social structure. Each tribe had its own god(s) and goddess(es), which were manifest in the forms of idols, stones, trees, or stars in the sky." (

"Before Islam, the religions of the Arabic world involved the worship of many spirits, called jinn. Allah was but one of many gods worshiped in Mecca. But then Muhammad taught the worship of Allah as the only God, whom he identified as the same God worshiped by Christians and Jews." (

"Allah: Originally applied to the moon; he seems to be preceded by Ilmaqah, the moon god... Allat: the female counterpart to Allah." (

There were hundreds of such deities in pagan Arabia; the Ka'bah alone at one time housed three hundred and sixty-seven of them. Of all those mentioned in the Qur'an, four appeared to be most popularly revered on the eve of Islam, al`-Uzzah (power), al-Lat (the goddess), and Manah (fate); all three female deities, popularly worshiped by the tribes of the Hijaz, were regarded as the daughters of Allah (the god) who headed the Arabian pantheon when Muhammad began to preach. Allah, the paramount deity of pagan Arabia, was the target of worship in varying degrees of intensity from the southernmost tip of Arabia to the Mediterranean. To the Babylonians he was "Il" (god); to the Canaanites, and later the Israelites, he was "El"., the South Arabians worshipped him as "Ilah," and the Bedouins as "al-Ilah" (the deity). With Muhammad he becomes Allah, God of the Worlds, of all believers, the one and only who admits of no associates or consorts in the worship of Him. Judaic and Christian concepts of God abetted the transformation of Allah from a pagan deity to the God of all monotheists. There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea that "Allah" passed to the Muslims from Christians and Jews. (

Before the name [Allah] came into Islam, it had already long been part of the pre-Islamic system, and a considerably important part, too...the pagan concept of Allah, which is purely Arabian—the case in which we see the pre-Islamic Arabs themselves talking about "Allah" as they understand the word in their own peculiar way." (

Let us begin by remarking that the name itself of Allah is common to Jahiliyyah and Islam. When, in other words, the Koranic Revelation began to use this word, it was not introducing a new name of God, a name strange and alien to the ears of the contemporary Arabs. The first problem, then, that we must answer is: Was the Koranic concept of Allah a continuation of the pre-Islamic one, or did the former represent a complete break with the latter? Were there some essential-not accidental-ties between the two concepts signified by one and the same name? Or was it a simple matter of a common word used for two different objects? ." (

What does this mean from the semantical point of view? What are the implications of the fact that the name of Allah was not only known to both parties but was actually used by both parties in their discussion with each other? The very fact that the name of Allah was common to both the pagan Arabs and the Muslims, particularly the fact that it gave rise to much heated discussion about the concept of God, would seem to suggest conclusively that there was some common ground of understanding between the two. parties. Otherwise there, could have been neither debate nor discussion at all. And when the Prophet addressed his adversaries in the name of Allah all, he did so simply and solely because he knew that this name meant something and something important to their minds too. If this were not, so, his activity would have been quite pointless in this respect. " (

As regards the 'basic' meaning of Allah, we may remark that many Western scholars have compared rightly -to my mind- the word in its formal aspect with the Greek "Ho Theos" which means quite simply 'the God'. On such an abstract level the name was common to all Arab tribes. In pre-Islamic times each tribe, as a rule, had its own local god or divinity known by a proper name. So, at first, each tribe may have meant its own local divinity, when it used an expression equivalent to "the God"; this is quite probable. But the very fact that people began to designate their own local divinity by the abstract form of "the God' must have paved, the way for the growth of an abstract notion of God without any localizing qualification and then, following this, for a belief in the supreme God common to all the tribes. We meet with similar instances all over the world. Besides, we must remember, there were the Jews and the Christians with whom the Arabs had constant opportunities of a close cultural contact. And naturally these Jews and Christians both used the same word Allah to denote their own Biblical God. This must have exerted a great influence on the development of the pre-Islamic concept of Allah among the Arabs towards a higher concept than that of a mere tribal divinity, not only among the town-dwellers but also among the pure Bedouins of the desert. However this may be, it is certain from the Koran alone, that by the time Muhammad began to preach, the pagan Arabs had come to cherish at least a vague idea, and perhaps also a vague belief, in Allah as the highest God standing above the level of local idols. This much we may reasonably assume as the 'basic' meaning, of the word Allah in Jahiliyah. And this much meaning, at least, must the word have carried into the Islamic system when the Koran began to use it as the name of the God of Islamic Revelation. For otherwise, as I have said, even a polemic discussion on this Islamic God could not have been possible between the Muslims and the Meccan pagans. " (

However, this is not the whole picture. We would commit a grave mistake if we imagined that this 'basic' meaning was the sole point of contact between the two conceptions of God. The thing did not occur in such a way that the pure concept of Allah with its simple 'basic' meaning or which is suggested by its formal structure -Allah = ho theos - came straight into the Islamic conceptual system falling down, so to speak, from some metaphysical world of pure concepts. But actually, i.e. historically, it came into the Islamic system through another system, namely, the pre-Islamic system of religious concepts, however crude the latter might have been. Before the name came into Islam, it had already long been part of the pre-Islamic system, and a considerably important part, too. (

To put it in another way, when the Islamic Revelation began, the pagan Arabs of Mecca could possibly have no other way of understanding the word Allah than by associating with it all the semantic elements that were already present in their minds. This was the first big semantic problem which faced the Prophet Muhammad when he started his prophetic career. ... The chief of those objectionable elements was the idea that Allah, although admittedly the supreme God, allowed of the existence of so-called "associates" shuraka' besides Him. But apart from this polytheistic element and some other less important points, the Koran acknowledges that the general concept of Allah entertained by the contemporary Arabs was surprisingly close to the Islamic concept of God. (

The first is the pagan concept of Allah, which is purely Arabian-the case in which we see the pre-Islamic Arabs themselves talking about "Allah" as then, understand the word in their own peculiar way ... (II) The case in which we observe the Jews and the Christians of pre-Islamic times using the very word Allah in referring to their own God. In this case "Allah" means of course the God of the Bible, a typically monotheistic concept of God. Exceedingly interesting examples are found in this respect, for instance, in the work of 'Adi b. Zayd, a, well-known Arab Christian, the Court poet of al-Hirah. (III) Lastly, the case in which we see the pagan Arabs - non-Christian, non-Jewish pure Jahili Arabs - handling the Biblical concept of God under the name of "Allah".(

"The relation of this name, which in Babylonia and Assyrian became a generic term simply meaning 'god', to the Arabian Ilah familiar to us in the form Allah, which is compounded of al, the definite article, and Ilah by eliding the vowel 'i', is not clear. Some scholars trace the name to the South Arabian Ilah, a title of the Moon god, but this is a matter of antiquarian interest...it is clear from Nabataen and other inscriptions that Allah meant 'the god.' The other gods mentioned in the Quran are all female deities: Al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat, which represented the Sun, the planet Venus, and Fortune, respectively; at Mecca they were regarded as the daughters of Allah... As Allah meant 'the god', so Al-Lat means 'the goddess'." (

Apparently, then, Allah was, already in the conception of the pre-Islamic Arabs the Creator of the world and the Giver of rain, i.e., the Giver of life to all that exists on earth. The only serious complaint brought against them by the Qur'an in this respect was that the pagans failed to draw the only reasonable conclusion from the acknowledgment of Allah's being the Creator of the heaven and the earth: that they should serve Allah alone and none else. (

It is indeed remarkable that this expression implies that in an emergency when they really felt that their own life was in mortal danger, the pagan Arabs used to have recourse to 'temporary monotheism' apparently without any reflection on the grave implication of such an act. That the phrase "making one's religion pure for Allah" in contexts of this kind means what we might call 'momentary -or temporary- monotheism', and not simply "sincerity" or "earnestness" in one's prayer is clearly shown by the fact that in the majority of the verses in which this expression is used the Koran adds the remark that these pagans, as soon as they reach the shore and feel sure of absolute safety, forget about all that has passed and begin again "to ascribe partners to Allah", i.e., fall back into their original polytheism. (

"The enemies tried hard against me", he says, "without desisting from doing anything that could harm me, by the Lord of Mecca and the ' Crucified". ... In this verse 'Adi b. Zayd claims his complete innocence and says that the misunderstanding on the part of the king has been produced only by the machination of the slanderers envious of his good fortune, and in order to give special weight to this declaration he swears by the Lord of Mecca and Christ putting together the two "Lords" into a single oath. What is important to remember regarding this verse is that the poet 'Adi b. Zayd was an Arab Christian, but he was neither a simple Arab nor an ordinary Christian. He was a man of the highest culture of his age. ... The fact that this man of highest culture and education put in one of his solemn oaths the Lord of Mecca and Christ together is significant, in My view, in two different ways: it is of importance, first of all, in connection with the problem of the relational meaning of the word Allah in its purely Arabian aspect. That a highly educated Christian, not a pagan Arab, living in Hirah, away from Mecca, did use this concept of the Lord of Ka'bah in this way shows better than anything else how wide-spread and influential was this particular connotation of Allah. ... The example of 'Adi b. Zayd's verse would seem to suggest, at least to my mind, that there was in the Christian psychology an unconscious tendency or inclination towards identifying -their Christian concept of Allah with the purely pagan Arabian concept of Allah as the Lord of the Meccan shrine. (

Both the Jews and the Christians in Arabia used Arabic as their vernacular, and, as I have pointed out earlier, referred to their Biblical God by the very word Allah, which was something quite natural seeing that the 'basic' meaning conveyed by this word was a very abstract one that would correspond roughly to the Greek ho theos. (

It is clear from the negative form of the Muslim creed, "There is no god except God," that the existence and lordship of Allah were known and recognized in pre-Islamic Arabia. The Prophet's mission was not to proclaim God's existence but to deny the existence of all lesser deities. The fact that Muhammad's own father bore the name 'Abd-Allah, slave of God, demonstrates that God was known by that name prior to Islam. The Qur'an in many passages refers to Muhammad's adversaries in Mecca, swearing by God, invoking Him, and recognizing His sovereignty as Creator. The name Allah is also evident in archaeological and literary remains of pre-Islamic Arabic. But the people of Mecca did not understand or allow that God alone should be worshipped. Indeed they contended against Muhammad that if God had willed it they would have refrained from believing in other deities (Surah vi. 148), clearly implying that God approved of their concurrent idolatry. (

There can be no doubt then that the Prophet's contemporaries knew of a Supreme Being, but He did not dominate their minds. Rather they thought more directly and frequently of the lesser gods, the daughters, perhaps even the sons, of Allah who were far more intimately related to their daily lives, their wars, their harvests, and their fertility. (

Certain trees and stones (especially meteorites and those shaped to resemble human forms) housed spirits and divinities. (

This was especially true of Allah, 'the God, the Divinity', the personification of the divine world in its highest form, creator of the universe and keeper of sworn oaths. In the Hejaz three goddesses had pride of place as the 'daughters of Allah'. The first of these was Allat, mentioned by Herodotus under the name of Alilat. Her name means simply 'the goddess', and she may have stood for one aspect of Venus, the morning star, although hellenized Arabs identified her with Athene. Next came Uzza, 'the all-powerful', whom other sources identify with Venus. The third was Manat, the goddess of fate, who held the shears which cut the thread of life and who was worshipped in a shrine on the sea-shore. The great god of Mecca was Hubal, an idol made of red cornelian. (

In recent years I have become increasingly convinced that for an adequate understanding of the career of Muhammad and the origins of Islam great importance must be attached to the existence in Mecca of belief in Allah as a 'high god'. In a sense this is a form of paganism, but it is so different from paganism as commonly understood that it deserves separate treatment. Moreover there is much about it in the Qur'an. The first point to note is that the pagans are prepared to admit that Allah is the creator of the heavens and the earth. (

The Arabic word for 'God', Allah, is a contraction of al-ilah, which like the Greek ho theos simply means 'the god' but was commonly understood as 'the supreme god' or 'God'. It is possible that before the time of Muhammad the Meccan pagans used to indicate the principal deity of the Ka'bah, in the same way in which the deity worshipped at at-Ta'if was known simply as al-Lat, the goddess. If the word Allah was also used for God as acknowledged by Jews and Christians, the opportunities for confusion would be great. The probability therefore is that while some Meccans acknowledged God, they did not see that their old polytheistic beliefs were incompatible with belief in God and reject them. These premonitions of monotheism among the Arabs must have been due mainly to Christian and Jewish influences. The Arabs had many opportunities of contact with Christians and Jews. The Byzantine empire, whose power and higher civilization they greatly admired, was Christian, and so was Abyssinia. Even in the Persian empire Christianity was strong, and al-Hirah, the Persian vassal-state with which the Arabs were much in contact, was an outpost of the East Syrian or Nestorian Church. This combination of monotheism with military and political strength and a higher level of material civilization must have impressed the Arabs greatly. (

All this material goes to show that among the pagans in Mecca and presumably also in the region round there was widespread recognition of Allah as high god. Such people may even have been more numerous than those who gave no special place to Allah, and they may have differed among themselves about the powers of a high god. This conclusion has been reached from a study of the Qur'an, and refers to a relatively small region during a restricted period. The study of inscriptions, however, has shown that belief in a high or supreme god was common throughout the Semitic Near East in the Greco-Roman period. It is worth quoting the conclusions of one who has made a thorough study of the inscriptions. It is worth quoting the conclusions of one who has made a thorough study of the inscriptions: "The epigraphical material reveals that the worship of a supreme god coexisted with that of other minor gods. The belief that one god is able to control all the other gods, or is supreme in that he has created and looks after the world, does not constitute monotheism. But the increasing emphasis on such beliefs is evidence of a trend towards monotheism, namely towards the exclusion of other gods' existence." [Javier Teixidor, The Pagan God: Popular Religion in the Greco-Roman Near East, Princeton 1977, 17.] " The authors of the inscriptions worshipped a supreme god who was alone in possessing a power that excelled any other divine power. He was believed to be a Weather god; heaven belonged to him. Lesser gods were his messengers and ministers. As stated in the first chapter, the cult of the angels became a significant feature of the religious life of the Near East during the Persian and Hellenistic times. It gave the angels their role of messengers, but also stressed the fact that the Lord of Heaven ranked at the top of a hierarchy of divine beings. On the other hand, the religious life of the various groups whose inscriptions have been studied in the preceding pages was rooted in the traditions of the ancestors." [Javier Teixidor, The Pagan God: Popular Religion in the Greco-Roman Near East, Princeton 1977, 161f.] In the light of this further evidence it becomes highly probable that when Muhammad began preaching the dominant view among thinking people in Mecca was the belief in Allah as high god. Pure paganism was in decline. (

North Arabian deities. Among the peoples around the northern perimeter of Arabia, "god," in the most generic sense, was El, or in a longer form of the same name, Ilah. (

"Allah: Before the birth of Muhammad, Allah was known as a supreme, but not sole, God." (

"Origin- Nabataean and Arabic: Derived from the western Semitic god Il. ... Known period of worship: circa 300 BC until present. ... The creator god of Islam. Perceived in pre-Islamic times as the creator of the earth and water" (

"Despite the prominence of the name elsewhere among Semitic peoples, the god Il (EI) appears to play a comparatively minor role in the South Arabian inscriptions. Some modem scholars have sought to explain this circumstance by equating Il with the moon god, but this opinion has not prevailed." ... "Among the peoples around the northern perimeter of Arabia, "god," in the most generic sense, was El, or in a longer form of the same name, Ilah. (Britannica,

Allah was known to the pre-Islamic Arabs; he was one of the Meccan deities, possibly the supreme deity and certainly a creator-god (cf. Kur'an, xiii, 16; xxix, 61, 63; xxxi, 25; xxxix, 38; xliii, 87). He was already known, by antonomasia, as the God, al-Ilah (the most likely etymology; another suggestion is the Aramaic Alaha). For Allah before Islam, as shown by archaeological sources and the Kur'an, see ILAH. (

But the vague notion of supreme (not sole) divinity, which Allah seems to have connoted in Meccan religion, was to become both universal and transcendental; it was to be turned, by the Kur'anic preaching, into the affirmation of the Living God, the Exalted One. (

ALLAH is the proper name of God among Muslims, corresponding in usage to Jehovah (Jahweh) among the Hebrews. Thus it is not to be regarded as a common noun meaning 'God' (or 'god'), and the Muslim must use another word or form if he wishes to indicate any other than his own peculiar deity. Similarly, no plural can be formed from it, and though the liberal Muslim may admit that Christians or Jews call upon Allah, he could never s Peak of the Allah of the Christians or the Allah of tire Jews. (

"The origin of this goes back to pre-Muslim times, as Prof. Noldeke has shown" (

Muhammad found the Meccans believing in a supreme God whom they called Allah, thus already contracted. With Allah, however, they associated other minor deities, some evidently tribal, others called daughters of Allah. Muhammad's reform was to assert the solitary existence of Allah. The first article of the Muslim creed, therefore, La ilaha illa-llahu means only, as addressed by him to the Meccans, ' There exists no God except the one whom you already call Allah.' Naturally, this precise historical origin is not clear to the Muslin exegetes and theologians. But that Allah is a proper name, applicable only to their peculiar God, they are certain, and they mostly recognize that its force as a proper name has arisen rough contraction in form and limitation in usage. (

The preferable view is that Allah is a proper name of God and has no derivation; this he defends with arguments based on the undoubted usage of the Qur'an and the impossibility of making a common noun apply to an individual only. (

Broadly, Allah is used of the true God only, as also, in the first instance, al-ilah ; but the latter can by extension be applied to any god, as Allah Himself applies it in the Qur'an. (

"In any case it is extremely important fact that Muhammad did not find it necessary to introduce an altogether novel deity, but contented himself with ridding the heathen Allah of his companions subjecting him to a kind of dogmatic purification." (

Comment: Allah is a term Muslims use to distinguish their moon god. The term was in existence before Muhammad was born. However it has no history of use outside the Arabic world, as Muslims claim. For example, it is not found in the Bible or in any Jewish or Christian writings. The moon god, however, does have a long history that dates back to the time of Abraham.

The final divinity to be considered is Allah who was recognized before Islam as god, and if not as the only god at least as a supreme god. The Quran makes it quite clear that he was recognized at Mecca, though belief in him was certainly more widespread .78 How is this to be explained? Earlier scholars attributed the diffusion of this belief solely to Christian and Judaic influences. But now a growing number of authors maintain that this idea had older roots in Arabia. Wellhausen's view that Allah (al-ilah, "the god") is a sort of abstraction which (originating in the local gods) gave rise first to a common word, then a common concept that merged the various gods into one single god has rightly been judged inadequate. One must rather see in this pre-Islamic Allah one of those great supreme gods who created the world but who plays a minor role in the actual cult. 79 If, therefore, Allah is indigenous to Arabia, one must ask further: Are there indications of a nomadic origin? I think there are, based on a comparison of the beliefs of the nomads in central and northern Asia with those of northeastern Africa. Like the supreme being of many other nomads, Allah is a god of the sky and dispenser of rain. 80 These indications might not seem sufficiently peculiar to Bedouin, for the notion of such a god might just as well have been formed by settled farming people. But one must not forget that rain is even more important for nomads. (

"...the Ka'aba was dedicated to al-Ilah, the High God of the pagan Arabs, despite the presiding effigy of Hubal. By the beginning of the seventh century, al-Ilah had become more important than before in the religious life many of the Arabs. Many primitive religions develop a belief in a High God, who is sometimes called the Sky God...But they also carried on worshipping the other gods, who remained deeply important to them." (

From the Koran itself it is clear that monotheistic ideas were familiar in Western Arabia. The existence of a supreme God, Allah, is assumed as an axiom common to Mohammed and his opponents. The Koran never argues the point; what it does argue is that He is the one and only God. La ilaha illa'llah, 'there is no god but Allah.' Mohammedanism, An Historical Survey H.A.R. Gibb, 1950,

"Allah, the Supreme Being of the Mussulmans: Before Islam. That the Arabs, before the time of Muhammed, accepted and worshipped, after a fashion, a supreme god called Allah,--"the Ilah, or the god, if the form is of genuine Arabic source; if of Aramaic, from Alaha, "the god"—seems absolutely certain. Whether he was an abstraction or a development from some individual god, such as Hubal, need not here be considered...But they also recognized and tended to worship more fervently and directly other strictly subordinate gods...It is certain that they regarded particular deities (mentioned in 1iii. 19-20 are al-'Uzza, Manat or Manah, al-Lat'; some have interpreted vii, 179 as a reference to a perversion of Allah to Allat as daughters of Allah (vi. 100; xvi, 59; xxxvii, 149; 1iii, 21); they also asserted that he had sons (vi. 100)..."There was no god save Allah". This meant, for Muhammed and the Meccans, that of all the gods whom they worshipped, Allah was the only real deity. It took no account of the nature of God in the abstract, only of the personal position of Allah. ...ilah, the common noun from which Allah is probably derived..." (

"The name Allah goes back before Muhammad" (

Islam: Muhammad and His Religion, Arthur Jeffery, 1958, p 85) First Encyclopedia of Islam, E.J. Brill, 1987, Islam, p. 587-591) A Guide to the Contents of the Qur'an, Faruq Sherif, (Reading, 1995), pgs. 21-22., Muslim) First Encyclopedia of Islam, E.J. Brill, 1987, Islam, p. 587-591) Islam: Muhammad and His Religion, Arthur Jeffery, 1958, p 85) Who Is Allah In Islam?, Abd-Al Masih, Light of Life, 1985, p. 36.) Islam and the Arabs, Rom Landau, 1958 p 11-21) The Hajj, F. E. Peters, p 3-41, 1994) The Hajj, F. E. Peters, p 3-41, 1994) The Archeology Of World Religions, Jack Finegan, 1952, p482-485, 492) The Archeology Of World Religions, Jack Finegan, 1952, p482-485, 492) The Archeology Of World Religions, Jack Finegan, 1952, p482-485, 492) History Of The Arabs, Philip K. Hitti, 1937, p 96-101) Mohammed: The man and his faith, Tor Andrae, 1936, Translated by Theophil Menzel, 1960, p13-30) History of the Islamic Peoples, Carl Brockelmann, p 8-10) Southern Arabia, Carleton S. Coon, Washington, D.C. Smithsonian, 1944, p.399) Gesenius Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, 1979, p. 367) Three Early Christian-Muslim Debates, ed. by N. A. Newman, Hatfield, PA, IBRI, 1994, pp.357, 413, 426). The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. John L. Esposito, 1995, p 76-77) Is Allah The Same God As The God Of The Bible?, M. J. Afshari, p 6, 8-9) Meet the Arab, John Van Ess, 1943, p. 29.) Southern Arabia, Carleton S. Coon, Washington DC, Smithsonian, 1944, p 398) The Moslem Doctrine of God, Samuel M. Zwemer 1905, p 24-25) Who Is This Allah?, G. J. O. Moshay, 1994, p 138) Why I Am Not A Muslim, Ibn Warraq, 1995, p. 42) Islamic Studies, A History of Religions Approach, Richard C. Martin, 2^{nd Ed., p 96) A Short History of Philosophy, Robert C. Solomon, p. 130) A Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology, Marian Edwardes, Lewis Spence, Allah, p. 7) Islam, Beliefs And Observances, Caesar E. Farah, p2-7, 26-35) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) II THE CONCEPT OF ALLAH IN ARABIAN PAGANISM (1) Allah in this conception, is the Creator of the world. (2) He is the Giver of rain, i.e., more generally, the Giver of life to all living things on earth. (3) He is the One who presides over the most solemn oaths. (4) He is the object of what we might justly describe as "momentary?' or "temporary" monotheism, the existence of which is evidenced by the recurrent expression in the Koran "making (momentarily) their faith pure for Him alone" (5) Finally, Allah is the Lord of Ka'bah. (God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) Islam, Alfred Guillaume, 1956, p 6-7) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) God and Man in The Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, Chapter 4: Allah, p96-119, 1980) The Call of The Minaret, Kenneth Cragg, 1956, 35-41) The Call of The Minaret, Kenneth Cragg, 1956, 35-41) Mohammed, Maxime Rodinson, 1961, translated by Anne Carter, 1971, p 16-17) Mohammed, Maxime Rodinson, 1961, translated by Anne Carter, 1971, p 16-17) Muhammad's Mecca, W. Montgomery Watt, Chapter 3: Religion In Pre-Islamic Arabia, p26-45) Muhammad at Mecca, W. Montgomery Watt, 1953, p 23-29) Muhammad's Mecca, W. Montgomery Watt, Chapter 3: Religion In Pre-Islamic Arabia, p26-45) Britannica, Arabian Religions, p1057, 1979) Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, 1997, p. 48) Encyclopedia of Gods, Michael Jordan, Allah, p 12) Arabian Religions, p1057, 1979) The Encyclopaedia Of Islam, New Edition, Edited By B. Lewis, V. L. Menage, Ch. Pellat And J. Schacht, 1971, ALLAH, page 406) The Encyclopaedia Of Islam, New Edition, Edited By B. Lewis, V. L. Menage, Ch. Pellat And J. Schacht, 1971, ALLAH, page 406) Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, Allah p 326) Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, Allah p 326) Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, Allah p 326) Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, Allah p 326) Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, Allah p 326) [This, of course, is a complete reversal of the historical fact.] Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, I:664.) Studies on Islam, edited by Merlin L. Swartz, Pre-Islamic Bedouin Religion, by Joseph Henninger, 1981, p 3-22) Karen Armstrong, Muhammad, (New York: San Francisco, 1992) p. 69.) The Koran, p 36-47 First Encyclopedia of Islam, E.J. Brill, 1987, Islam, p. 302) The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Anthony S. Mercatante, I:41, 1983)}