Some people are claiming that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, but Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American and former head of the highest court at the Vatican, insists this is not true.
He said Allah and God are different because the Islamic god "is a governor," while the Sharia law, "which comes from Allah," believes it "must dominate every man eventually."
"I hear people saying to me, well, we're all worshipping the same God, we all believe in love," Burke said in an August teleconference about his latest book, according to the National Catholic Register. "But I say stop a minute and let's examine carefully what Islam is, and what our Christian faith teaches us both."
Burke, who is an archbishop and the patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, said in contrast to Allah, God is the "giver of revelation," and His law is written "on our hearts" and "we're given a divine grace to live according to that law."
He said the teachings of God are not true in Islam, so people cannot claim that the Christians' God and the Muslims' Allah are just the same. Burke does not believe the Sharia law is founded on love, so to claim that Christians and Muslims both believe in love is "simply not correct."
"And while our experience with individual Muslims may be one of people who are gentle and kind and so forth, we have to understand that in the end what they believe most deeply, that to which they ascribe in their hearts, demands that they govern the world," he said.
"Whereas, in the Christian faith we're taught that by the development of right reason, by sound metaphysics, and then that which leads to faith and to the light and strength that's given by faith, we make our contribution to society also in terms of its governance," he added.
