THE NETHERLANDS:A Catholic bishop in the Netherlands has proposed that people of all faiths refer to God as "Allah" to foster understanding, stoking an already heated debate on religious tolerance in a country with one million Muslims.
Bishop Tiny Muskens, from the southern diocese of Breda, told Dutch television on Monday that God did not mind what he was named and that in Indonesia, where the prelate had spent eight years, priests used the word "Allah" while celebrating Mass.
"Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will name God 'Allah'? . . . What does God care what we call him? It is our problem."
A survey in the biggest-selling newspaper in the Netherlands, De Telegraaf, yesterday found that 92 per cent of the more than 4,000 people polled disagreed with the bishop's view, which also drew ridicule.
"Sure. Let's call God Allah. Let's then call a church a mosque and pray five times a day. Ramadan sounds like fun," Welmoet Koppenhol wrote in a letter to the newspaper.
Gerrit de Fijter, chairman of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, told the paper that he welcomed any attempt to "create more dialogue", but added: "Calling God 'Allah' does no justice to western identity. I see no benefit in it."
A spokesman from the union of Moroccan mosques in Amsterdam said that Muslims had not asked for such a gesture.
Signs of tension had already surfaced in the last two weeks after the head of a committee for former Muslims was attacked and populist anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders called for the Koran to be banned.
Bishop Muskens, who will shortly retire, has raised eyebrows in the past with suggestions that those who are hungry may steal bread and that condoms should be permissible in the fight against HIV and Aids.
Some Dutch Muslims welcomed his comments as a valuable gesture of support coming just days after Mr Wilders branded the Koran a "fascist book", in the vein of Hitler's Mein Kampf, which legitimises violence.
Mr Wilders, whose party won nine seats out of the 150 in parliament in last November's elections, is known for his firebrand remarks on Islam.