Friday, January 15, 2010

Jesus is the son of Allah - root of the problems in Malaysia


The riots in Malaysia in response to the overturning of a ban on Christians using the word “Allah” has given me a lot to think about. My first response is horror at the destruction of churches and disappointment in the Muslims who commit and support such acts of hate. My second response is a bit more academic. As a literary scholar who works on Arabic and Persian texts, much of what I do involves translation. How to translate the words people use to refer to any deity — let alone the Deity — leads us to all sorts of political and philosophical questions. MORE HERE

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