# In Allah we trust? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 26, 2022, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386 "2022-08-26T09:51:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2022, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/41 "2022-08-26T22:25:07Z")
Yes, yes, there are some people who really are still confused by that. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/42 "2022-08-27T09:27:44Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I’d have thought Arabic-speaking Christians would have used an Arabic transliteration of Yahweh/Jehovah. Now I know. Isn’t “Allah” a transliteration of Yahweh/Jehovah? > [@flurb](#): > > > [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > > > That seems like a really poorly written law, but I think it’s a stretch to interpret “must display in a conspicuous place in each building of the school or institution a durable poster or framed copy of the United States national motto” to mean “must display every poster sent to them.” > > Actually, I think that’s pretty clearly the requirement, as long as each poster meets the requirement of the law. So would this mean that if a school received 15,000,000 appropriate posters _every single one_ must be displayed? What about a hundred million? What about a hundred billion? Where would they put them all? Wouldn’t they run out of “conspicuous places” after 500 or so? Would it be legal to cover over the posters? Because if you were sent enough of them there wouldn’t be room for whiteboards or other educational displays. Could they paper over the windows? Who is supposed to put all these posters up? The posters may be donated but what about the time and wages for the poor sucker putting them up? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/43 "2022-08-27T09:39:33Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > > [@HeyHomie](#): > > > > I’d have thought Arabic-speaking Christians would have used an Arabic transliteration of Yahweh/Jehovah. Now I know. > > Isn’t “Allah” a transliteration of Yahweh/Jehovah? Because they are obviously so similar? Well, they do both have an “H” in there somewhere. I don’t want to type in a long list of some of the names of God in Islam, but you can click here: > **[Names of God in Islam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Islam)** > > Names of God in Islam (Arabic: أَسْمَاءُ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ʾasmāʾu llāhi l-ḥusnā, "Allah's Beautiful Names") are names attributed to God in Islam by Muslims. Some names are known from either the Qur’an or the hadith, while others can be found in both sources, although most are found in the Qur’an. > (Quranic/ classical written forms) > \[Various Spellings\] (no YHWH) ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/44 "2022-08-27T13:22:18Z")
You’re putting more thought into the potential impact of this legislation than the Texas Legislature ever did. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/45 "2022-08-27T16:41:42Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Isn’t “Allah” a transliteration of Yahweh/Jehovah? no, but Allah is related to a different Hebrew word for God, _El_ ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/46 "2022-08-27T18:48:38Z")
What if someone donates a million “In God We Trust” signs to one school? Do you really need to wallpaper the school with it? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/47 "2022-08-27T18:56:46Z")
One wonders who is going to enforce this. Are they going to go to every public school in Texas and ensure that the posters are displayed to their satisfaction? Why not actually teach the kids, so they can read the posters in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/48 "2022-08-27T19:00:11Z")
I’m sure that those who send in the posters will be happy to complain when they’re not promptly displayed. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/49 "2022-08-27T19:30:14Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > One wonders who is going to enforce this. The Taliban seems to be able to enforce rules over there, maybe we need a christian version here. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/50 "2022-08-27T19:51:29Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > The Taliban seems to be able to enforce rules over there, maybe we need a christian version here . Hey, you’re in luck! ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/51 "2022-08-27T20:13:10Z")
There’s something that rubs me the wrong way about a non-Arab using the Arabic language to make a political point. It’s not exactly “cultural appropriation” - a term and phenomenon that I’m typically leery of when it’s brought up, unless the appropriation is particularly egregious - but it’s…I don’t know, it somehow feels wrong. The guy is trying to dunk on Texas’s stupid law and the Christian fundamentalists who support it, I get that, but it’s like he’s implying there’s something un-Christian about the Arabic language, which would be news to the tens of millions of Arab Christians who recite Christian prayers in Arabic. It would be one thing if this was an Arabic speaker, either Christian or Muslim, using this stunt as a teachable moment to try to convey to people that Arabic speakers worship the same God who is called “God” in English, but that isn’t what it is. Are there Muslim students at the schools where these posters will go up? Are those kids going to catch shit for this from Christians, even though the kids had nothing to do with it? Maybe I’m overthinking all of this, but I could see it putting Arab-Americans in a situation that they didn’t ask for. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/52 "2022-08-27T22:35:20Z")
ISTR that the guy who had the Arabic posters printed up knew several people who spoke, read, and wrote Arabic, and he asked THEM to help him format it. It’s not like he just used Google Translate and Photoshop. I wonder what the good people of Texas would think if someone distributed posters that said “In God We Trust” in Cyrillic lettering, and preferably the Russian language (I’m aware that Ukrainian, and at least one language in the former Yugoslavia, also uses it). ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/53 "2022-08-27T22:48:51Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > The guy is trying to dunk on Texas’s stupid law and the Christian fundamentalists who support it, I get that, but it’s like he’s implying there’s something un-Christian about the Arabic language, which would be news to the tens of millions of Arab Christians who recite Christian prayers in Arabic. He’s doing it because Arabic triggers fundamentalist Christians who think of it as a language only terrorists speak. And yeah, you’re right, it could have negative consequences. ---
**Author:** ![SharltoCopley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sharltocopley/32/12309_2.png) [@SharltoCopley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharltoCopley)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/54 "2022-08-27T23:49:44Z")
This is not a.common expression in Arabic. The equivalent would.be نؤمن بالله which translates literally as 'In God [‘s existence] We Believe’. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2022, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/55 "2022-08-28T00:13:07Z")
thanks ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2022, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/56 "2022-08-28T02:02:26Z")
> [@SharltoCopley](#): > > This is not a.common expression in Arabic. The equivalent would.be نؤمن بالله which translates literally as 'In God [‘s existence] We Believe’. Right, but that doesn’t quite capture the intent of the US “In God We Trust” motto. AIUI it’s from the final verse of the Star-Spangled Banner: > [@](#): > > Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, > And this be our motto - “in God is our trust” It’s not so much “We are declaring our belief that God exists” as “We know God’s got our back in this difficult situation and we are relying on Him for success”. ---
**Author:** ![SharltoCopley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sharltocopley/32/12309_2.png) [@SharltoCopley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharltoCopley)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2022, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/57 "2022-08-28T02:18:55Z")
You are exactly right. This is why I said the expression isn’t common in Arabic, although I should have put it more clearly and said it doesn’t exist in Arabic at all, due to cultural and religious reasons. And so the real equivalent to ‘In God We Trust’ in Arabic should be an equally central and generic statement that people would put on a banknote. I think the first part of the Shahada (لا إله إلا الله) fits the purpose pretty nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2022, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386/58 "2022-08-28T02:49:07Z")
Yes, or ISTM that بالله التوفیق “success is with God” is often used in that same kind of generic “In God We Trust” sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-allah-we-trust/970386.md?page=2)