Pet peeve: When you have someone from the Middle East quoted in a U.S. newspaper or magazine, what they say is translated into English. Except for one word. One word that is almost never translated into English. One word that, when translated into English, got Steve Earle into a bit of a fuss with wingnuts back in 2002. And that word is "God". Which, for some reason, never gets translated into English. Instead, it gets rendered as the made-up nonsense word "Allah."
In case you're wondering, Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians. He's a pretty vicious and vindictive dude, if you read your Old Testament. For example, he tormented Job for no reason other than "just because I can." Mis-translating the Arabic word "God" has only one real purpose, and that is to insinuate that the God that Muslims worship is different from the God that Jews and Christians worship and thus it's okay to kill Muslims. Or, if you're Muslim, that it's okay to kill Jews and Christians. That's all.
-- Badtux the Pet Peeve #10203 Penguin
