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Allah as Moon-God is a claim put forth by some critics of Islam that the Islamic name for God, Allah, derives from a pagan Moon god in local Arabic mythology. The implication is that "Allah" is a different God from the Judeo-Christian deity and that Muslims are worshipping a "false god". The claim is most associated with the Christian apologist author Robert Morey, whose book ''The moon-god Allah in the archeology of the Middle East'' is a widely cited source of the idea that Allah is a moon-god. It has also been promoted in the cartoon tracts of Jack Chick.〔 The use of a lunar calendar and the prevalence of crescent moon imagery in Islam is said to be the result of this origination.〔''A history of pagan Europe''. Prudence Jones, Nigel Pennick. Psychology Press, 1995. ISBN 0-415-09136-5 p.77〕 In 2009 anthropologist Gregory Starrett wrote, "a recent survey by the Council for American Islamic Relations reports that as many as 10% of Americans believe Muslims are pagans who worship a moon god or goddess, a belief energetically disseminated by some Christian activists."〔Gregory Starrett, "Islam and the Politics of Enchantment", ''Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute'', May 2009, vol. 15. S222-S240.〕 Islamic and Western scholars have rejected these claims, one even calling them "insulting".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Scholarly Pursuits: Joseph Lumbard, classical Islam professor )〕 It is argued that "Allah" is just the word for "God" in Arabic, which ultimately derives from the same root as the Hebrew words "El" and "Elohim", both used in the Book of Genesis. Sociologist Lori Peek writes that, "Allah is simply the Arabic word meaning God. In fact people who speak Arabic, be they Christians, Jews or Muslims, often say 'Allah' to describe God, just as God is called 'Gott' in German and 'Dieu' in French."〔Lori Peek, ''Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans After 9/11'', Temple University Press, 2010. p.46.〕 While other gods were certainly referred to using this epithet, this is equally true of the Hebrew words. The Biblical commandment You shall have no other gods before me uses the same word, "Elohim", to refer to the "other" gods that is used for the creator god.〔Donald E Gowan, ''The Westminster theological wordbook of the Bible'', Westminster John Knox Press, 2003, p.168.〕 It is also true of the English, French and other European-language words for God. Indeed the English word "God" evolved from pagan Germanic terms for invocation; the Latin word Deus, from which "Dieu" derives, can be traced to the same root as Dyeus, which gives the names of the ancient Indo-European divinities Zeus, Jove and Dyaus Pitar. Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) calls the Moon-God theories of Allah evangelical "fantasies" that are "perpetuated in their comic books".〔Jack G Shaheen (Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture ) (1997) page=9〕 ==Etymology== The word Allah certainly predates Islam. As Arthur Jeffrey states, The 19th-century scholar Julius Wellhausen also viewed the concept of "Allah (al-ilah, the god)" to be "a form of abstraction" originating from Mecca's local gods.〔''Studies on Islam''. Merlin L. Swartz. University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-19-502716-7 pp.12〕 Alfred Guillaume notes that the term "al-ilah" (the God) ultimately derives from the Semitic root used as a generic term for divinity. Guillaume notes that some scholars have argued that the epithet "the god" was first used as a title of a moon god, but this is purely "antiquarian" in the same sense as the origins of the English word "god". "Some scholars trace the name to the South Arabian Ilah, a title of the Moon god, but this is a matter of antiquarian interest...it is clear from Nabataean and other inscriptions that Allah meant 'the god'."〔Alfred Guillaume. ''Islam''. Penguin 1990 ISBN 0-14-013555-3 pp.7〕 The word "Allah" was used by Arabic-speaking Christians and Arab Jews before the lifetime of Muhammad as the word for God. It was also used by pre-Muslim Arab monotheists known as hanifs.〔Timothy C. Tennent, ''Theology in the Context of World Christianity'', Zondervan, 2009.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Allah as Moon-god」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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