Snow358

Evangelicals Claim that Muslims Worship the “Moon God”. Is this True? NO! The claim is a false claim as Muslims worship Allah, Allah simply means ‘the god’ in Arabic (1). The reason why I am writing this article is because I, although being familiar with this piece of Christian evangelical propaganda, came in direct contact with this claim quite recently. I was in my local Waterstones (A well-known chain of bookshops in the UK); I had already purchased a book by Bart Ehrman from one of its competitors but went into Waterstones and purchased Karen Armstrong’s Islam a Short History. Before purchasing this book I browsed through it and found a little comic strip booklets entitled Allah Had No Son (published by Chick Publications). My initial reaction was that this booklet was a free complementary booklet to introduce the reader to the idea of the Islamic belief; God is One and has no partner or co-equal, i.e. Islamic (pure) monotheism. I looked into this booklet and realised it was Christian evangelical propaganda in the form of a comic strip claiming that Muslims are worshipping a ‘moon god’. Simultaneously, it became quite apparent that a Christian missionary had been into the store and left this material in the book so to cloud any research of Islam an honest individual may be undertaking. Looking at it personally, the comic-booklet did seem to be bordering along the lines of racial-stereotyping. Condemning the methodology of sabotage that the evangelist employed is not the purpose of this article; the purpose is solely in the view of debunking the Christian evangelical claim. This claim is more prevalent in north America and seems to have originated from that region as well as that region containing many of the propagators and believers in such a claim. The ‘moon god’ claim is in fact quite dated now and has been debunked and refuted many times over by Muslims so it is a little surprising that the Christian evangelical community still use it in their attempts to ensnare Muslims. Of course, their continued usage of this claim, suggests either dishonesty or ignorance of the solid refutations Muslims have put forward. Dr Robert Morey is infamous for this claim amongst Muslims, in fact the comic strip booklet (Allah had no Son by Chick Publications) uses Morey as a reference! Jack G. Shaheen, outlines an instance of an eager evangelist spreading the claim; in 1996 Janet Parshals, a Christian evangelical host of a radio program, told listeners that Muslims worship the “moon god”(2)(3). Ibrahim Hooper (CAIR), in 1996, informed Shaheen that the “moon god” myth is commonly believed amongst evangelical Christian communities ‘who perpetuate such fantasies in their comic books’ (3). Having said all this we still need to show this claim to be incorrect to avoid any confusion and doubt. The best place to start is the Quran. The Quran is believed to be the verbatim Word of God (Allah) by Muslims. What has the Quran outlined about ‘moon worship’? The Quran teaches us not to worship the moon or the sun but to worship Allah (the One who created them) 41:37- Among His Signs are the Night and the Day, and the Sun and the Moon. Adore not the sun and the moon, but adore Allah, Who created them, if it is Him ye wish to serve. (4) So Muslims do not deify the moon nor the sun but worship Allah. As touched upon earlier, Allah is the Arabic personal name for God. W.Montgomery Watt tells us that Arab Christians, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant use Allah as the word for God. In fact he goes on further and teaches us the word Allah is similar to the New Testament ho theos and both simply mean ‘the god’ (1). The meaning of Allah as ‘God’ is also confirmed by Karen Armstrong (5). Interestingly enough, these two famous Western scholars of Islam do not suggest Allah is a ‘moon god’ but these claims come from the evangelical Christian camp that has an agenda of evangelism that compromises their objectivity. I also note there is some confusion and conflation with the fact that the word Allah existed before the Prophet Mohammed’s time on Earth and the Arab pagans’ use of the word Allah. It is disappointing that we have people who lack sound historical and theological scholarship who write propaganda pieces in the form of booklets or internet articles about this issue. It just further illustrates truth in the adage; a little knowledge is dangerous. Yes, we (those who have studied Islam) know that the name Allah was in use before the time of Prophet Muhammed. If we read Ar-Raheeq ul-Makhtum we realise that the early Arabs did believe in Allah as the Only God. This is dated all the way back to the time of Prophet Ishmael who resided in Makkah (Mecca) and learned Arabic as well as settling there(8). He preached the message of pure monotheism; “Most of the Arabs had complied with the call of Ishmael and professed the religion of his father Abraham. They worsh