By the stroke of the bards pen,…”.A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” 

When I miss and drop a hammer on my thumb I call the hammer many names. None of them meant to carry glad tidings and prayers for peace. I may call the hammer a rutabaga but that doesn’t change the feelings I get when I smash my thumb with a hammer called rutabaga.  I guess I could use the “operationally defined” method of identifying hammers by saying “that heavy metal nail driver.”  It is quicker to say “hammer”, and be done with it. Soon, with popular use, the name becomes the action.  Instead of using the heavy metal nail driver as a identifying factor,  the name “becomes the action.” I hammer the nail  with my hammer.

Such distinctions of name become meaningless when you change the action of the object. More and more the name Allah is transmuting into a synonym for terror, violence and death.  The operation of the named person/place/thing being referred to carries the meaning. Jesus, is a moniker that carries a deeper meaning of the name. The God of the new testament means peace, love, and generosity of spirit. When one speaks of the God of the Jews or Christians, ideas of understanding are born upon the breath of the word. Allah, however, drags a lot of negative baggage that stands in direct conflict with both Jewish and Christian beliefs.

What does an illiterate prophet do when he is certain his word of god will not match the written word of God when all you have to go on is stories you have heard transferred verbally, a multitude of warts and all? You simply state that all previous versions of the truth are distorted and that yours is the only text that got it right. Right?

One system of belief preceded Mohamed’s entry on the world stage by 600 years.  The other system of beliefs preceded his appearance by over 1500 years. Both religions that preceded the desert bandits  proffering  had been fully functioning by a large cross section of the middle east for a long time. Betting the farm on a belief system that is based on, but condemning of, two previously established religions is a bad bet.

So if what you’ve got Is brown and smells awful, it doesn’t matter if you call it a rose. All you really got is crap on a stick.