The name games continue in Malaysia; following the Malaysian Supreme Court ruling that a Catholic newspaper had the right to use the word “Allah” in reference to the Christian God, demonstrations have flared, mobs are on the march, and churches have been firebombed.

This does not, I am happy to note, represent the reaction of many Malay Muslims to this decision.  The ruling party (whose membership is overwhelmingly Muslim) has issued a statement in support of the court’s decision; the leading opposition party, sometimes called an Islamist party, has also affirmed the right of Christians to use the “‘Allah’ word” in reference to the common deity of the two faiths.  The president of the PAS, the Islamic opposition party in Malaysia, said that as members of an Abrahamic religion, Christians (and Jews) must be free to use the word.  He also spoke up in defense of liberty of conscience, saying that Muslims do not favor forced conversion or religious compulsion.

Malaysia has a rich ethnic and religious mix.  Much of what goes on there is difficult for outsiders to understand; the politics and ethnic rivalries among the country’s Malay, Chinese and Indian inhabitants are complicated and intense, and these rivalries are often behind stories that the world press often interprets as religious.  (The native Malays are virtually all Muslim; the Chinese and Indian population, mostly descended from immigrants who arrived in the country when it was under British rule, are mostly Christian, Hindu and Buddhist.)  The rural areas feature such astounding creatures as a 25 foot long goat-eating python; in the international airport outside Kuala Lumpur I’ve seen both Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on display in the bookstore.

While ethnic conflict is probably the root of this particular conflict, there’s a real question in here, and it’s an important one.  Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

This seemingly simple question is harder to answer than you might suppose.  From an atheist’s point of view, the question is somewhat absurd.  Do Christians and Muslims worship the same non-existent being, or do they worship different ones?  Do Tommy and Sally have the same imaginary playmate or are their playmates different?

Among believers, reactions are also mixed.  I’ve met Christians and Muslims who think both religions worship the same God and I’ve met Christians and Muslims who think they don’t.  Which Christians and Muslims are right and which ones are wrong?

In general, the most prominent religious leaders with the largest following believe that the two religions worship the same God.  That historically has been the mainstream position in both religioius groups going back to their earliest encounters.  It was well established in the Middle Ages on the Christian side: Dante, for example, places Muhammed in hell among the schismatics and heretics rather than among the unbelievers.  On the Islamic side, the recognition of Christians and Jews as ‘people of the book’ who followed corrupt and half-understood messages from the one true God was equally widespread.

More sectarian currents within both religious traditions disagree.  In the United States and abroad, there are groups of evangelicals and Pentecostals who think that Islam is a demon-inspired cult.  (This is not anti-Islamic per se: many of them hold the same view of Roman Catholicism and the (Mormon) Church of Latter Day Saints.)  Some radical Islamic sectarians, who believe that many of their fellow-Muslims are actually apostates, also take a harsh view of Christians and Jews.

The argument over whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God is not likely to end anytime soon.  But whether or not we worship the same God (and count me among those who think that we do), we live in the same world and, increasingly, we live side by side in it.  Almost half the world is either Christian or Muslim today; sometime fairly soon it is likely that Christians and Muslims together will make up more than half of the world’s population.  If Christians and Muslims learn to live together peacefully and draw on the rich teachings of both religions about the importance of mercy, justice and peace, we can make the 21st century a time of fruitful cooperation and respectful dialog and coexistence.

If we fail, the future of the world could be much bleaker and more dangerous than any of us want.