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Apparent Islamic Terrorism Strikes Sydney
An anonymous reader send this link to a developing situation in Sydney, Australia, being reported on via live feed at the Guardian, and covered by various other news outlets as well. According to CNN's coverage, "CNN affiliate Seven Network said that at least 13 people are being held at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe. It published a photograph of people inside the cafe holding a black flag with Arabic writing on it. The flag reads: "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God."
From The New York Times' coverage: The police have shut down parts of the city’s transport system, and closed off the mall area. They would not confirm how many people were being held hostage inside the cafe, nor whether those inside are armed.
Local media reports said that the airspace over Sydney had been closed and the famed Sydney Opera House evacuated. Television images showed heavily armed officers with their weapons trained on the cafe.
Color me shocked.
It seems stupid to translate words that have become proper names for distinct concepts. David is David in English and David in French. Do you know what David is in German? David. In Arabic it's also David. Just because other cultures have similar sounding or meaning names doesn't mean you substitute them.. David is not Davide, it's not Davit, it's not Dawid, it's not Daud... it's David.
We definitely don't translate names like "Abdullah" to "Abdugod."
In English it's common to adopt words from other languages to express new concepts. The Muslim god is Allah, not God. Allah is too different from God to get the same name in English. Arabs can call God whatever they want in their own language, including Arab Christians who call the Christian god Allah.
It's just so stupid when things like "Allahu akbar!" are translated in news stories as "God is great" as if it means anything close to the same thing when Muslims say it as when Christians say it.
The armed population of the US seems very easy to terrorise, so I don't see your point. We in Oz don't want the thousands of deaths a year you well armed morons have.
My sister lives in Melbourne and her patio furniture is stolen every year. The thieves know how "safe" they are, so they do what they like. She chained it up but they took the chain too. I recently won a .380 auto in a poker game. I put it in my shotgun cabinet. No one has ever tried to steal from my patio. When you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.