"You should call people what they call themselves by Muslim"
Reader comment on item: Moshe Sharon Explains Middle Eastern Realities
in response to reader comment: you should call people what they call themselves

Submitted by Ed Melik, Esq. (United States), Oct 29, 2009 at 22:52

Right. What do you call those who believe that at all cost Israel? Jews or ??? Jews are always respectably called Jews regardless of which country they are living in. But the use of different names of God is not only a practice in Islam but also in Judaism, for example: The most important and most often written name of God in Judaism is the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God, AKA יהוה, or YHWH. "Tetragrammaton" derives from the Greek prefix tetra- ("four") and gramma ("letter", "grapheme"). The Tetragrammaton appears 6,828 times (see 'Counts' in the Yahweh article) in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia edition of the Hebrew Masoretic text. This name is first mentioned in the Book of Genesis (2.4) and in English language bibles is traditionally translated as "The LORD".Islam but in Judaism too.

(The epithet, "The Eternal One," may increasingly be found instead, particularly in Progressive Jewish communities seeking to use gender-neutral language^[1]). Because Judaism forbids pronouncing the name outside the Temple in Jerusalem, the correct pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton may have been lost, as the original Hebrew texts only included consonants. Some scholars conjecture that it was pronounced "Yahweh", but some suggest that it never had a pronunciation (which is extremely unlikely given that it is found as an element in numerous Hebrew names). The Hebrew letters are named Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh: יהוה. In English it is written as YHWH, YHVH, or JHVH depending on the transliteration convention that is used. The Tetragrammaton was written in contrasting Paleo-Hebrew characters in some of the oldest surviving square Aramaic Hebrew texts, and it is speculated that it was, even at that period, read as Adonai ("My Lord") or Elohim when encountered.^[2]

In appearance, YHWH is an archaic third person singular imperfect of the verb "to be", meaning, therefore, "He is". This explanation agrees with the meaning of the name given in Exodus 3:14, where God is represented as speaking, and hence as using the first person — "I am". It stems from the Hebrew conception of monotheism that God exists by himself for himself, and is the uncreated Creator who is independent of any concept, force, or entity; therefore "I am that I am".

The idea of 'life' has been traditionally connected with the name YHWH from medieval times. Its owner is presented as a living God, as contrasted with the lifeless gods of the 'heathen' polytheists: God is presented as the source and author of life (compare 1 Kings 18; Isaiah 41:26–29, 44:6–20; Jeremiah 10:10, 14; Genesis 2:7; and so forth).

So there are so many different interpretations in all religions used at different times. Muslims/Mohammeadans/Islamists, the Christians and the Jews have lived and intermarried for centuries up until the time when the Western culture was thrust upon a traditionally eastern people (Jews, Christians,Muslims, and all other religions). The conflict is not among the Jews and the Muslims but the East and the West. As Rudyard Kipling has said "East is East and West is West and two shall never meet". So this is the cultural dispute more than anything else. Look, no matter how different two or three people think differently or are far apart in their belief system, eventually, all will come to an end which neither one of us have any control over. So let's hope and pray for the good of all people regardless of their names, beleif system or what they practice. Each one of them are righteously correct in practicing what they believe.

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