There are 284 mentions of the 'moon' within Mein Koran. Given that 'Allah' or the 'Lord' is Hub'al the male moon deity of Mecca, and the most important pagan idol within the 360-idol Kabaa shrine, the saturation of Muhammad's handbook with moon references is sensible. Allah is Hub'Al.
Walid Shoebat is a former Moslem and PLO terrorist. In his book, 'Why I left Jihad' he makes a reference to the moon cult and moon deity paganism which is the center-piece of Islam. The Allah is not a god in the Christian sense of that word, it is the northern Arabian moon deity idol, a corruption or extension of what was revered for millennia in Babylonia, Syria and by groups as diverse as the Sumerians, Hittites and Canaanites.
"Islam is simply a revival of a Babylonian religion. The Moon god with the crescent moon and star symbol originated in Babylon and was one of the 360 idols in the Kaaba before Muhammad destroyed them. In Babylon, their Moon god was called 'Sin'...The Arabic word for 'god' is 'IIah' and the Moon god became synonymous with 'al-IIah,' meaning "the god;' pagan Arabia believed that the Moon god was the greatest of all the gods, hence the phrase 'Allahu Akbar' meaning 'Allah is greater'.... The pagan Arabs used 'Allah' in naming their children. For example, Muhammad's father was called Abdullah, meaning 'servant of Allah.'"
The Babylonian word for lord is Bel [Baal in the Old Testament] and Bel was applied to the moon idol, Sin. Bel Sin would be the highest 'lord' known to humans. Through trade, war, cultural contact and personal exchange, Bel or Baal spread throughout all of the Near East. Northern Arabia was not exempt from Baal worship. The Arab word for lord – ilah – was simply instituted for Baal. The rites, the sacrifices, the pagan attributes, even the sex orgies pre Muhammad, all have their echo in the distant past stretching back to Bablyon [600 BC] and even into Sumerian, Assyrian, and Hittite history [1300 BC].
Another word for Baal is Hubal. In Christian theology the pagan Hubal or Baal is equated with devilish forces and demonic powers. Hubal spreads confusion and destruction in the world. The Christian god is his opposite and anti-thesis. The equation of Hubal or Baal with evil relates to the pagan practices and ferocity of Baal's adherents. Like Islam today, the cult of Hubal allowed and encouraged human sacrifice [Moslems call this 'honor killing']; animal sacrifice, polygamy, a patriarchal society, the breeding of boys, ritualized rites and offerings, and intolerance for non-cult members. Hubal is Allah. Allah is Hubal. Muhammad's own tribe the Quraysh worshipped Hubal or Baal in the Kabaa shrine.
"Among
the gods worshipped by the Quraysh, the greatest was Hubal...The
Quraysh had several idols in and around the Kaaba. The greatest
of these was Hubal."
[F.E. Peters, The Hajj, pp.24-25]
"Hubal
was the principal deity [in Mecca] ..the God of the
Moon.."
[Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, p.179]
"...of
the 360 idols set up in the Kaaba, the most important was Hubal,
the god of the moon...it was set up in the Kaaba and became the
principal idol of the Meccans.
[ibid., p.161].
"Hubal
was the Chief god of the Kaaba."
[George W. Braswell,
JR, Islam, p.44]
"...The
main god of the shrine was Hubal"
[Neighboring Faiths,
Winfried, Corduan, p.78]
Near Eastern societies venerated typically one chief god or idol in each shrine. The Quraysh and pagan Arabs did give observance to the moon deity. The ilah means the one, referencing the one true 'lord'. It is highly likely that in the pantheon of celestial objects and 'lords' which the pagan Arabs prayed to, that Hubal or Baal was primus-inter-pares, or the 'lord', the main 'one', of the Kabaa shrine. But since Hubal does not appear in the Koran and given that Muhammad smashed all the idols in the shrine when his army took Mecca in 630 AD, it is quite likely, indeed unquestionably certain, that the Baal idol is Allah.
....if Allah was a pagan god [as we have seen he is] like any other the Quraysh would not have allowed Hubal to share the sanctuary with him....One would have to fall back on the view that Allah might simply be another name for Hubal, as Wellhausen suggests and just as the Israelites knew Yahweh as Elohim, so the Arabs knew Hubal as Allah, meaning god. [Muslim Trade and the Rise of Islam, pp.192-193]
Moslem liturgy, impoverished as it is, never mentions Baal. The Arabs most certainly did venerate the moon and sun 'gods' as did all Near Eastern peoples. The Moslem claim that Allah appears from nowhere and drops himself into history by revealing his 'Koran' or book of recital to Muhammad via the arch-angel Gabriel, is to put it very diplomatically, absurd and nescient. Allah had 'slaves' like Muhammad's father. He was certainly a cultural fixture.
The reason why Islam and the Koran do not have any other 'idols' is that Muhammad and his Moslem cult erased every vestige of every idol, that had pre-existed rise of the policracy called Islam or Submission [submit to Allah and Muhammad, not to god]. Any reasonable person would accept the fact that millennia of moon worship of Baal, who was the main 'sin' or 'lord', found its way into pagan Arabia, and Muhammad the politician simply took this moon or celestial cult idol and conflated it with himself, declaring the 'lord' or 'ilah' to be the only deity of veneration, and he Muhammad, to be its only spokesman.
How convenient.