The Christian Post (http://sg.christianpost.com)
We're Not Fighting for 'Allah': Malaysia Christianity Leader, 13 May 2010
by Edmond Chua(edmond@christianpost.com)
・The Rt. Rev. Ng Moon Hing, the Anglican Bishop of West Malaysia, in a 2009 New Year video message to members of his 30,000-strong diocese.
Contrary to the view of many, Christians in Malaysia are not fighting for the use of the word 'Allah'. Nor do they intend nor need to.
This is a misconception the leader of nearly all the 2.5 million Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians in Malaysia has been trying to correct.
Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) Chairman Ng Moon Hing stressed that the Malay word for 'God' is as much a part of the languages of indigenous Christians as it is a part of the language Muslims use.
He was speaking to The Christian Post on the sidelines of a recent meeting of Anglican archbishops in Singapore.
Describing the scenario, the bishop said: “Native Malaysians have been using 'Allah' for centuries and now you are saying they cannot any longer.
“It’s not a fight for it; it’s just that it has been part and parcel of their religious and social life.”
Native Malaysians who are neither Muslim nor Christian also use ‘Allah’, the bishop pointed out.
As such, the ‘Allah’ dispute is not a religious issue.
It is essentially one community defining language for another community, one religion telling another to change their Scripture, he suggested.
Bishop Ng said: “It’s not right to change another people’s language. If the people themselves want to change it, let them change it themselves… no one should change another people’s language.
“I think that is a universal right… so I don’t think we are fighting for any rights… there is no intention to fight.”
Nine native people groups, who make up 60 percent of Christians - over one million people - in Malaysia, have been using 'Allah' for nearly half a millennium without controversy.
Then, relatively recently, former authorities banned the use of ‘Allah’ in Malay Bibles.
The former government of the predominantly Muslim country argued that such Bibles were a threat to national security. That claim, however, is unproven, the bishop stressed.
When the enactment was passed, Christian leaders met with government officials then. They reached a compromise after many discussions.
The former government amended the enactment. Christian use of ‘Allah’ is still banned, except in the case of internal usage within churches.
Often when Christians imported Malay Bibles, because Bible publication is prohibited in Malaysia, they would be confiscated at the port, according to Bishop Ng.
For 25 years, Christian leaders repeatedly resolved the issue by meeting and dialoguing with the authorities.
And then, a few years ago, Malaysia prohibited the use of ‘Allah’ in a Catholic weekly.
Like the Malay Bibles, the Malay edition of ‘The Herald’ is internally circulated. Catholic Church-initiated dialogue broke down.
The Roman Catholics took the case to high court.
Three years on, the court ruled in favour of the Catholic newspaper.
The following week, the Malaysian government appealed the high court decision. The case, repeatedly postponed, is still pending.
Firebombs were thrown at numerous churches as tensions between the Muslim and Christian communities rose to a feverish pitch.
There is a widespread, ongoing perception that Malaysian Christians are trying to cause an upset with their insistence on the use of the word.
“Suddenly everybody saw the newspaper, ‘Wah, how come you have not been using it and now only you start using it? (sic)” Bishop Ng said.
“But actually it was not like that; we have been using it for the past 4-500 years.”
Churches have numerous old Bibles, prayer books and documents to show for it, according to the Anglican Bishop of West Malaysia.
The CFM leader believes dialogue is still the way forward.
Muslim and non-Muslim leaders alike are not ‘interested’ in pursuing the path of violence, he said.
There have been attempts by both the Catholics and the authorities to talk.
“But I don’t see any amicable result at the moment,” he said.
On its part, the government has formed an interfaith committee.
Yet “even that interfaith committee has not been welcomed by some quarters,” said the bishop.
“And that has put everything into disarray now and they have not met yet.”
Acknowledging a government effort to resolve the issue, Bishop Ng feels authorities need to be ‘more obvious’.
More should be done on the “leadership level to engage people and initiate dialogue and take the lead for racial and religious harmony,” he pointed out.
“There is no sign of any resolution at the moment, but we hope that this will not last too long,” said Bishop Ng.
“We hope that some dialogue takes place.”
（End）
