It sounds a bit amusing for me who lived in Malaysia between 1990-1993 and 1994-1995 to note that suddenly this ‘400 years’ Malay Bible, which was translated for the present Indonesian people, not for the Malayan people, to be quoted as a kind of the testimony for justifying this ‘Allah’ issue in Malaysia. Actually, this version of the Bible has been known before the Second World War among the experts of the Malay language in Japan. Older publications in Japanese proved it long time ago. But during my stay in Kuala Lumpur, most of the local Christians I met did not want to touch on the Malay language issue as ‘sensitive’.
The Catholic dictionary in 1631 seems to be another interesting case. I mentioned this dictionary in my presentation in Japan in March 2012, but in the early 1990s I have never heard of this dictionary even from the Catholic researchers I met.
Globalization contains such kinds of the time lag between the local people and the outsiders. （Lily）
1. The Malaysian Insider（http://www.themalaysianinsider.com）
After 400 years of ‘Allah’ in bibles, CFM says to stick with practice, 9 January 2013
by Debra Chong, Assistant News Editor
The Christian Federation of Malaysia, an umbrella body representing 90 per cent of churches nationwide, says Christians has a constitutional right to describe its god as ‘Allah’, saying the word has been in Malay-language bibles for more than 400 years. – Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 – The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) maintains its constitutional right to describe its god as “Allah”, saying the word has been in Malay-language bibles for more than 400 years – as a Selangor royal decree threatens to restrict the right of non-Islamic religious worship.
The Selangor Sultan has yesterday issued a decree banning non-Muslims in the state from using the word “Allah”.
The umbrella body representing 90 per cent of churches nationwide said Christians here said the Arabic word is being used by “all Bahasa Malaysia-speaking church congregations especially the Orang Asli Christians, the Baba Christians and Sabahan and Sarawakian Christians including those who are residing in the various states of West Malaysia”.
“In accordance with Article 11 of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, CFM affirms every person’s right to profess and practice his religion and in this connection, the churches’ freedom to use the Holy Bible in Bahasa Malaysia, the Alkitab, in all our church services, meetings and in our homes,” its chairman Bishop Datuk Ng Moon Hing said in a statement today.
The latest row arose after Selangor’s religious authority said it would enforce a blanket ban on non-Muslim use of the word, despite a High Court ruling in December 2009 that the word “Allah” was not restricted to Muslims and the Catholic Church had the right to publish the word in the Malay section of its weekly newspaper, Herald.
Sikhs, who also lay claim to use of the word in their holy texts, are similarly affected by the state law.
In recent years, the Christian and Muslim religious communities have been engaged in a tug-of-war over the word “Allah”, with the latter group arguing that its use should be exclusive to them on the grounds that Islam is monotheistic and the word “Allah” denotes the Muslim god.
Christians, however, counter that they have a legitimate and constitutional right to also call their god “Allah” based on historical records.
The “Dictionarium Malaico-Latin and Latino-Malaicum” was first published in 1631 by the Vatican Press in Rome.
Church officials say it is historical proof that its missionaries had played a key role in the exchange of knowledge and culture between Europe and Southeast Asia some 400 years ago.
Reverend Lawrence Andrew, who had worked for the past 11 years to reprint the dictionary, previously told The Malaysian Insider it was crucial to counter the mistaken belief that the spread of Christianity through local languages in Malaysia was a recent 20th-century phenomenon.
“It’s to say it’s been here for a long time... 400 years,” the editor of the country’s sole Catholic weekly newspaper, Herald, told The Malaysian Insider in an interview two years ago.
The Catholic Church had challenged the Home Ministry for the right to use the word “Allah” to describe God in the Christian context and had won in a landmark ruling at the High Court on New Year’s Eve in 2009.
But the paper is unable to use it as the ministry managed to get a stay pending its appeal which has been languishing at the Court of Appeal for the past three years.
Veteran lawyers have said there is little the church can do speed up the process as there are no rules on a time limit; adding it was not unusual for a case to be called years after being filed.
Andrew had submitted a copy of the dictionary as historical evidence to back the church’s suit after the ministry tendered several essays by Islamic scholars from the influential Institute of Islamic Understanding here supporting its case.
St Francis Xavier was instrumental in romanising the Malay language, which was used widely but had no written form in Southeast Asia then.
The Vatican’s former representative to Malaysia, Archbishop Luigi Bressan, had observed that the Holy See had as early as 1622 set up a special printing office to spread its Catholic Christian doctrine worldwide, and had marked the importance of Malay in that role.
Bressan, who was the Apostolic Delegate to Malaysia from July 26, 1993 to March 25, 1999, was crucial in reproducing the historical document.
The Italian archbishop remarked that Jesuit missionaries had “distinguished themselves” in translating the new Asian languages into Latin and European languages, in his notes to his essay “A 17th-Century Roman Dictionary of the Malay Language” that was also published as a sort of foreword in the 2010 reprint.
2. Loyar Burok（http://www.loyarburok.com）
If Allah Is A God in Islam, Can Christians Call Their God Allah?, 30 April 2011
by NH Chan
If Allah is the Islamic God then, since Christians are not Muslims, could or should Christians call their God Allah?
The nomenclature of God
IF YOU LOOK UP THE WORD “ALLAH” IN ANY ENGLISH DICTIONARY , you will find this definition:
Allah noun the name of God among Muslims; or Allah n. the principle Muslim name for God.
In fact all English dictionaries are definite about the meaning of the word Allah; it is the name of God in Islam. Surprisingly the dictionary does not say that it is an Arabic word. Actually it is not strange at all. As I have already explained before, this Arabic word has become an English word since the sixteenth century when it was spelt using the English alphabet to represent the speech sounds of the Arabic word. It is only an Arabic word if it is written in the original Arabic text as distinct from the phonetic spelling in English.
If Allah is the Islamic God then, since Christians are not Muslims, could or should Christians call their God Allah?
The answer will depend on whether, as a fact, Allah in Arabic was first coined by the founder of Islam or that this Arabic word Allah had predated Islam and had been in existence as a name for “The God” – “The” meaning “the only one of its kind”, as in “the only God” – long before Prophet Mohammed’s Call, the legendary revelation of Allah in 611 AD. As a matter of fact, even before there was Jesus Christ, “Allah” meaning “the only God” was already a word in Arabic a Semitic language spoken by the ancient Arabs who belonged to the ethnic group of peoples known as the Semites.
Historically, therefore, the Arabic word Allah was not coined by Islam’s founder at all. According to the Bible, God made Abraham, his two sons Ishmael and Isaac and their descendants His people. Since then monotheism – a religious belief that there is only one God – was founded. The descendants of Abraham from the line of Ishmael (the Arabs) and Isaac (the Jews) worshipped the only God named Allah in Arabic and Eloah in Hebrew. In Arabic, Allah was derived from Al – Ilah meaning Al (The) + Ilah (God). In Hebrew God was Eloah with a capital E.
Muslims worship the same God that Abraham, his two sons and their descendants had first worshipped more than 2000 years before Islam was founded and more than 1500 years before Jesus Christ was born.
Before Abraham there was god and there were gods without a capital G. For example: “elohim” means “gods” in Hebrew and “ilah” means “god” in Arabic. Since Abraham, after God made him and his two sons and their descendants His people, God is called Allah in Arabic and Eloah in Hebrew and they mean “The only God”.
So that the Arabs and the Jews, and after the founding of Christianity and Islam, Christians and Muslims throughout the world worship the same God that Abraham, his two sons and their descendants first worshipped in biblical times thousands of years before there were Christians and Muslims.
Allah was the Arabic name for the only God long before Islam was founded. Abraham worshipped the only God whose name even then was Allah in Arabic and Eloah in Hebrew. Before Abraham there were also those who worshipped the only God. In biblical times English was not then spoken yet, so the Deity was not called God in English. But Arabic was already a spoken language in ancient times and Allah in Arabic was worshipped by those who believed in the only God even then.
But even in ancient times there were those who worshipped other god or gods and the true God was displeased with them (see the Quran) and they were punished. The Quran acknowledged and confirmed the biblical story of Noah (Nur), Surah 71, Abraham (Ibrahim), Surah 14 where Moses was also referred to. The Quran has also confirmed that even in the days of Noah, Abraham and Moses, Allah meaning the only God had been worshipped thousands of years before Islam was founded. That being the case, it has been established beyond peradventure that there were believers who had been worshipping Allah the only God so many thousands of years before Islam was founded in 611 AD.
Therefore, it is dishonest for those narrow-minded politicians and clerics to claim that only Muslims can use the word Allah when before Islam was founded others had been worshipping Allah, meaning the only God, for thousands of years by the Arabs and the Jews. In biblical times Allah was not worshipped by Muslims because Islam had not been founded yet.
That being so, I have often wondered why some people in our government today are so obsessed with the view that only Muslims can use the word Allah. Why should human beings prevent others from worshipping God according to their faiths by decreeing that those who worship the God of Abraham, as Christians do, are not allowed to call their God Allah? God never said His name Allah is for Malay Muslims only! God is never a racist. Only the misinformed are the racists. However, Muslims elsewhere do not mind Christians calling their God by the name Allah because God can be addressed in any language. For example, why should anyone be upset if a Chinese Christian addressed the only God as their God or Allah without using any Chinese word? For that matter, should a sensible Arab Muslim or Christian be upset when an Indian Christian addressed his only God in English or in Arabic, by calling Him God or Allah instead of using Hindi or Tamil?
The etymology of the Arabic and Hebrew languages for God
The Semites or Shemites are an ethnic group of peoples who speak a Semitic language, including the Jews and Arabs as well as the ancient Babylonians, Assyrians and Phoenicians. Of these peoples who came from the same national or cultural background only the Arabs and the Jews still exist today.
Of the Semitic or Shemitic languages that include Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Amharic, and such ancient languages as Arkadian and Phoenician, only Arabic and Hebrew are still spoken.
In the Semitic languages, God is ‘Allah’ in Arabic, ‘Eloah’ in Hebrew and ‘Elah’ in Aramaic – these words, signifying God, are being pronounced according to their phonetic spelling in English as most, if not all, of us do not speak or write any of the aforesaid Semitic languages. Why do the mentioned languages sound so much alike? They sound similar because the Arabs and the Jews belong to the same ethnic group of peoples called Semites who shared and speak the same genus of Semitic languages. By the same token the Chinese people even though they speak different dialects like Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka, etc their language is written in Chinese characters which an educated Chinese can read irrespective of his spoken dialect. Similarly a scholar of any of the ancient Semitic language could decipher and read another language of the same Semitic genus.
To find out when Allah became the name of God to his people, we have to go back in time to ancient biblical history. We start with Shem who was the eldest of Noah’s three sons: see Genesis 10:21 in the Old Testament. The descendants of Shem were the Shemites or Semites, hence the name of this ethnic group of peoples. The ancient Babylonians, Assyrians and Phoenicians, including the Jews and Arabs were regarded as descendants of Shem: see The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology.
The phases of God: from making Abraham and his descendants His people to being worshipped throughout the world from the teachings of Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed
According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Abraham was the first of the patriarchs and the founder of the Hebrew people (Genesis 11 – 25). Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar who was Sarah’s maidservant, was the ancestor of 12 Arabian tribes (Genesis 21: 8 – 21; 25: 12 – 18). Isaac was the younger son of Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 17: 21 – 27).
In How to Judge the Judges I wrote, pages xxix, xxx:
Abraham was the founder of the Hebrew people. According to the Old Testament, Abram (later Abraham) at God’s call abandoned civilization, his father’s household and his people to wander in the desert as a nomad. His wife Sarai (later Sarah) had borne him no children. So Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. Hagar soon conceived with Abram’s child. But Sarai mistreated Hagar and heavy with child she ran away. According to the Old Testament, the angel of God found Hagar and told her to return to Abram and added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.” God also told Hagar that she shall name her son Ishmael for God has heard of her misery at the hands of Sarai. Ishmael means God hears. So Hagar bore Abram a son and he gave him the name of Ishmael. According to the Old Testament, Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael. When Abram was 99 years old, God said to Abram that no longer will he be called Abram (it means exalted father); your name will be Abraham (it means father of many) for you will be the father of many nations – he will be fruitful and kings will come from him. In return, Abraham and his descendants will worship the God of Abraham who will be the God of his descendants for generations to come and the Covenant (agreement) they are to keep were; Every male among him shall be circumcised. For the generations to come every male who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in the household or bought with money from a foreigner – those who are not their offspring. Those who are not circumcised will be cut off from his people. As for Sarai, her name will be Sarah and she will be blessed and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her. A son will be born of her. His name will be called Isaac. Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
As for Ishmael, God said he had heard Abraham: “I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.”
And so on that very day, so the story goes in the Old Testament, Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household, and circumcised them. Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised, and his son Ishmael was 13. And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born to him by Sarah, and he was circumcised.
And at page xxxi:
So now we know that the Arabs and the Jews were descended from Ishmael and Isaac whose father was Abraham (Ibrahim); and the God of them is the same God. And God has marked them as His people by circumcision.
Those events took place some two millennia before Jesus Christ was born, and before Prophet Mohammed founded Islam some 600 years after the birth of Jesus Christ.
After Abraham, with the advent of Christianity and Islam the worship of the only God extended to worshipping Him throughout the world. Monotheism, the religion of worshipping only One God, has become a world religion.
I ask, because I am unable to understand, why our government is trying so hard to separate the inseparable, that is, the people who believe in worshipping the same God to demean another of the same faith by decreeing that Christians are not allowed to call their God Allah and desecrating their Bible just because Christians call Allah their God. But the Quran had accepted Jesus Christ as being sent by God (Allah) to deliver the teachings of Allah (God).
NH Chan, a much respected former Court of Appeal Judge, is a gavel of justice that has no hesitation in pounding on Federal Court judges with wooden desks for heads. Retired from the Judiciary to become the People’s Judge. Wrote the explosive “Judging The Judges”, now in its 2nd edition as “How To Judge The Judges”. Once famously hinted at a possible “case match” between lawyer and judge by remarking that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (see Ayer Molek Rubber Company Berhad & Ors v Insas Berhad & Anor [1995] 3 CLJ 359). We need more people like NH Chan. That is why you should buy PASOC and his book.
3．Ekklesia （http://www.ekklesia.co.uk）
by agency reporter
9 Jan 2013
Core religious issues of Jewish-Christian relations intertwine with complex current political realities, says Dr Clare Amos, programme coordinator for inter-religious dialogue and cooperation at the World Council of Churches (WCC).
The just-published issue of Current Dialogue, 53, edited by Amos, explores the ramifications of Jewish-Christian dialogue for Christian self-understanding.
The issue has been developed from papers offered in June 2010 in Istanbul, at a consultation organised by Amos’s predecessor, the Rev Dr Shanta Premawardhana, who now serves as president of the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education in Chicago, United States.
The meeting itself, its introduction recounts, “brought together Protestant and Catholic theologians from Germany, other parts of Europe, and the USA who work intensively on Jewish Christian dialogue concerns, to engage in conversation with Middle Eastern and Orthodox theologians. In a significant and unusual development, there were also three Jewish observers present.”
It was also apparent during the course of the gathering that theological reflection by Christians in this field cannot be entirely separated from political pressures and concerns relating to the Middle East, said Dr Amos, and the publication reflects that reality.
Moreover, says Clare Amos, “there is the fundamental question of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism – what can briefly be summed up as the question of ‘supersessionism’ or ‘replacement theology.’ It was obvious at our meeting that the Christian world does not yet speak with one voice on this issue.”
Along with Amos and Premawardhana, feature contributors include Philip A. Cunningham, Bernd Schröder, Robert O. Smith, Demetrios E. Tonias, and Jesper Svartvik, as well as a host of specific denominational and regional perspectives.
・The issue is available online at www.oikoumene.org/current-dialogue.
[Ekk/3]
4. Malaysiakini (http://www.malaysiakini.com)
(1) Orang Asli can keep chapel in Machap Umboo, 9 January 2013
A consent judgment has been recorded in the Malacca High Court between the Orang Asli of Machap Umboo and three government agencies over the attempted demolition of a chapel built on native customary land.
The consent was recorded yesterday by Judicial Commissioner Abdul Karim Jalil who made no order as to costs.
Litigant Heerby Siam, who is from the Temuan tribe, had filed a judicial review application to challenge the Alor Gajah Municipal Council’s order to demolish the chapel via a notice dated Nov 25, 2011.
She named the Land and Mines Department and the Malacca government as the other respondents.
On Nov 25, 2011, the Malacca High Court had allowed a stay of the demolition order.
On May 11 last year, the litigant’s lawyers had been granted leave to initiate a judicial review.
Malacca state legal advisor Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid had on Dec 10 last year - at the start of judicial review hearing - indicated that parties were attempting to resolve the dispute.
This resulted in the consent judgment, the main terms of which are:
• The land in Kampung Orang Asli Macap Umboo is to be gazetted immediately as aboriginal reserve land under Section 62 of the National Land Code 1965.
• The proposed gazetted land is to be produced to Heerby via her lawyers for approval.
• she is then to submit her application to the council and pay the processing fee - pending this, the council will not impose a fine on her and will withdraw the demolition notice.
• Pending the issuance of approval, the chapel will not be demolished.
• In accordance with the special position of the Orang Asli as enshrined in Article 8(5)(c) of the federal constitution, the respondents shall not impose disproportionate conditions on Heerby.
• Heerby undertakes to file the application within a month from the consent order or within a reasonable extention of time.
Heerby was represented by Steven Thiru, Victoria Ng Yiow Kheng, Yoges Subramaniam, Aaron Mathews and Gregory Das.
Sugandra Rao Naidu appeared for the municipal council, while Meor Hashimi represented the other two respondents.
(2) Any Muslim been misled with use of 'Allah'?, 11 January 2013
YOURSAY 'The possibility of it causing confusion is just a manufactured excuse - it cannot be sustained with empirical evidence.'
The complexities of the 'Allah' issue
Paul Warren: I, too, would prefer the use of ‘Tuhan' than ‘Allah'. But for whatever purpose when the first Christian literature was translated in the 17th century, they used ‘Allah'. Since then ‘Allah' has been used continuously.
And over the years in both Indonesia as well as Malaysia, this has not caused confusion amongst Muslims. The possibility of it causing confusion is just a manufactured excuse. It cannot be sustained with empirical evidence that it has in fact caused such confusion.
Indeed English-speaking Malay Muslims would better understand the Bible than they would the Quran. They have not been misled. The Cape Malays, isolated for centuries and having forgotten the Malay language, still retain their faith in Islam despite being surrounded by Christians.
Left alone, no one would have thought anything about this. But someone in the 1980s decided that this is a one-upmanship they could foisted on the Christians to show to Muslims that they were the true defenders of Islam.
They started passing laws. The manufactured excuse is, I believe, something more recent. It is not just ‘Allah' that is a protected word. I believe in one of the states, ‘Amin' is also protected. But that is the word we all use in any language to close a prayer and it is also found in several passages in the Bible in whatever language.
Clearly this whole thing was just not well thought-out and it was done more as a showcase for showing Umno, rather than PAS, was the true defender of Islam in this country. And going one up on the Christians surely scores a lot of points.
‘Allah' was already in use in Christian literature long before this charade. The point is if the Christians backed off now, would that stop these people from violating us further?
Will they tell us that we should not refer to Jesus as the son of God? Rather, to him as a prophet? Will they tell us to change the story line of Abraham so that it is Ishmael who is to be sacrificed?
Malaysia ABU: I wonder why the Malay-speaking Christians never worry that they could pick up the Al-Quran and mistaken it as Alkitab?
And also not worry that by the use of ‘Allah' in both the holy books, they could be easily converted to Islam?
With the dominance of Islam in Malaysia, the Malay-speaking churches should be more easily influence by Islam and their flock be converted to Islam, not the other way round. Why are some Muslim groups so paranoid?
Odin: Oon Yeoh, I believe Christians in East Malaysia refer to God as ‘Tuhan Allah' when they use their own languages. Only when they converse in English would they say ‘God'.
They have also been using the word ‘Kitab' to refer to their Bible since a long, long time ago. Perhaps informed East Malaysians reading this might want to confirm my understanding, or correct me if I am wrong.
If you go back to the early days of Islam, you will find that the Muslims considered Jews and Christians as of their own kind. They described the latter as Ahl-al-Kitab, Arabic for ‘People of The Book'.
If they were in the ruling side, they protected and were benevolent to the latter. The only thing they prohibited was for the latter to convert Muslims to their religions.
In any case, and as far as I know, this issue never existed in the past in Malaysia; it came up only very recently, less than 10 years ago, was it? It died down, and now brought up again.
YF: Oon Yeoh, thanks for making matters worse and further confusing everyone. Clearly you have no knowledge of what you are talking about and neither does your friends. Sorry for being so blunt.
I will not reply to all the statements you have made in your article because I've already dealt with them elsewhere in Malaysiakini. However I will deal with your most unpleasant final statement and that is conversion.
My question to you is have you been to Indonesia or East Malaysia? Have you attended a church service in Bahasa Malaysia? Have you read the Alkitab?
Why is it that Muslims there do not have suspicion long before this nation was founded and most certainly long before your ancestors came from China? Because it is an Arabic word that is now integrated into the local language.
3rdEye: It is not a complex issue. The politicians, royalties, religious bodies and media are making it a big issue.
This issue has been around for umpteenth years and the rakyat have been 'giving and taking'. Because these people want to win votes and to become popular, they played it up to turn it into a major religious issue.
They are fault finders instead of consensus builders. These people live on the rakyat fighting one another so that they can retain their power and position.
SteveOh*: Who cares what anyone thinks or what the religious authorities dictate. What matters is what God says. Can anyone show me where God says no one else is allowed to call him ‘Allah' except Muslims?
Until then those who stop others had better be careful lest they end up offending God by their misplaced zeal. Why is it a problem now when not in the past and outside Malaysia?
Appum: A very simple and good analysis, Oon Yeoh. The only sad thing is a solution that can please all parties will be hard to find.
Pl3gm4tic: This is one analysis that the East Malaysians will laugh at. A random survey in Sabah and Sarawak, especially the interior, will give you a different story altogether.
RAW: The matter is only complex for some people because they like it to be so. The writer of the article seems to suggest that Christians have an agenda in converting Muslims.
Christianity may be evangelical in nature, but I believe Christian Malaysians in general do not intend to break the laws of the country they live in.
Even if there are some Christian Malaysians who harbour the wishful thinking that the word ‘Allah' in the BM Bible may convert a few Muslims who are weak in their faith, so what?
There is already a national law that forbids Muslims from changing their religion. So what is so complex about the issue?
Southpaw: Oon, if you intend to write about this issue, then you need to do more research on these two great religions and the varying views on this issue.
A couple of interviews with some friends shows you treat this issue too lightly.
Wira: Oon, if we go to Sabah and Sarawak, we'll find that Christians there had been using ‘Allah' to call their God long before they had any association with Umno and Malaya.
To deny them of this identity to their God for political expediency is wrong. I hope the bigots in Umno will stay out of the religious affairs of our East Malaysian brothers.
・The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakinisubscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments.
(3) Group: M'sia only country to restrain use of 'Allah' word, 11 January 2013
Malaysia is the only country in the world where non-Muslims are being restrained from using of the word ‘Allah’, claimed Catholic Lawyers’ Society president Joy Appukuttan.
Urging the country to respect the rights of the minority, Joy said there is no basis or justification for one religious group or the executive to dictate another group's choice of words in religious books or publications.
“Each religious group has their own views from a theological standpoint on the use of the word ‘Allah’.
“There is no basis for one religious group to deny another of their constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and the right to educate its believers in the way that they determine, as set out in Articles 11 (1) and (3) of the federal constitution,” he said.
“The ‘Allah’ issue has been heavily politicised, as Malaysia is the only nation in the world where non-Muslims are being restrained from the use of the word ‘Allah’,” he said.
He pointed out, in a statement, that Malaysia has many legislation for those who utter, injure, disturb or trespass against any religious communities, as prescribed under Section 295 to 298 of the Penal Code.
He was commenting on the prohibition on the use of the word among non-Muslims in Selangor.
Joy said the federal government, on April 2, 2011, had announced a 10-point solution that included the import of bibles in all languages and that there is no limit be set on printing or the choice and references of words used.
Hence, he said any restrictions imposed would contradict the federal government’s stand, as reflected in the announcement.
Understand each other's faith
Pointing to the landmark Herald case, in which the Kuala Lumpur High Court had on Dec 31, 2009, declared the blanket ban on the use of word Allah on non-Muslims “as illegal”, he said the court recognises the non-Muslims right to the use of the word.
“We call on all parties to respect the constitutional rights of the minority religious communities and allow them to profess, practise and manage its own affairs including the continued use of ‘Allah’ and not impose their own views, inhibitions, restrictions or control on other religious communities.
“We also call on all parties to work towards better understanding of each other's faith in order to preserve peace and harmony. The inter-religious committee set up by the federal government should take heed and act to bring together all religious groups to achieve greater understanding and respect.”
He added that the rakyat’s constitutional rights to religious freedom should not be sacrificed at the expense of political expediency.
(4) In the name of Allah, Umno eyes Malay votes, 11 January 2013
YOURSAY 'It is no disrespect to the Selangor sultan but this issue has been politicised and it is with deep regret that the sultan has been dragged into this fray.'
We'll continue to use 'Allah', declares churches council
Starr: It's nothing more encouraging than seeing the Christian leadership in the country taking its rightful place and standing firm in faith in defence of the constitutional right of religious freedom.
The constitution is the supreme law of the country which can't be surpassed and usurped by any other laws and decrees.
The king and his prime minister have the solemn duty to defend the very document by which they are sworn into office, let alone abusing and undermining it.
Treeman: The Kuala Lumpur High Court found the ban on non-Muslims using the word ‘Allah' as flawed and unconstitutional. Until such time this ruling is overturned, it remains law.
Lover Boy: The stand taken by the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) is consistent with the rights guaranteed under the constitution.
It is no disrespect to the Selangor sultan but this issue has been politicised and it is with deep regret that the sultan has been dragged into this fray. All the same, Daulat Tuanku!
Lai Tak Ming: I applaud my Christian leaders for having the courage to stand together with all Malaysians in exercising their freedom of worship. They are mere mortals, simple folks with no political agenda except the desire to serve and honour God in any and all languages.
To our Muslim friends, we mean you no harm or malice, just the desire to worship our God as you worship yours. Surely, this is not so difficult?
Telestai!: Christians should show restrain by not using the word ‘Allah' out of love and respect for its Muslim Malaysian brothers. I am a Christian and I don't see a major problem if Christian Malaysians were to do so.
Nothing is lost but a lot of goodwill will be gained. Less confrontation, more cooperation.
JMC: We are so near to Putrajaya but may not reach it as we allow evil forces disrupt our unity. The Pakatan Rakyat leadership, including Abdul Hadi Awang, has endorsed our right to use ‘Allah'.
Historically and constitutionally, we know we are right. Are going to allow our differences in what to call God to disrupt our goals?
The last thing we want is to fight and hate one another in the name of God.
Anonymous #37634848: The church and Christians are arrogant! They want to hear only what they want to hear. They don't care for the intense sensitivity of Muslims. Allah is one and only. There is no partner to Him, such as Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.
If you use the word ‘Allah' without the letter and spirit of Allah, you are insulting Him and therefore all Muslims. Is this the spirit of co-existence in Malaysia?
Chipmunk: Anonymous #37634848, the arrogance did not start with the Christians as we have been quiet and tolerant. Umno is feeling threatened as they are losing Malay votes. So the only way to win them back is to create a ruckus using religion.
Second, if you have read in many of the comments in Malaysiakini, the term 'Allah' was never an exclusive word for Muslims as it has been used in the Bible and the Sikh bible since the early days and even countries like Indonesia and the Arab world had no problem with others using the term ‘Allah'.
So again I ask you, why only now is Umno creating the religious tension?
MfM: PAS is right, ‘Allah' is not monopolised by Muslims, but they are also wrong as history in the region serves that ‘Allah' was used exclusively by Muslims before the Christian invaders came and colonised the archipelago.
Now we have the answer, I hope everyone is more enlightened on the matter and for once I agree with BN and Umno and the sultan that in Malaysia, ‘Allah' should only be used by Muslims.
However, for Sikhs and only for Sikhs, it is different since Sikhism itself is combination of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islamic principles which was coined by their Guru. Thus, it not surprising that in Sikhism there are references to Allah as the monotheistic god.
They have the right to use it, but not Christians and certainly not any of the polytheists.
James Dean: I would like to make this call to all opposition party leaders to stay out of this ‘Allah' issue. Why? Because BN had now even used the royalties to further confuse this issue.
Mohamad Abdul Malik: Bravo! Now BN and in particular Umno has gotten what it most needed - the Malay votes.
CCM general secretary Rev Hermen Shastri has done what Umno has not been able to do since 2003 - stem the tide of Malay votes to the opposition. Now it's plain sailing for BN. Goodbye to Pakatan dream's to Putrajaya.
Jiminy Qrikert: Mohammad Abdul Malik, that's what you think. But you fail to recognise that your narrow-minded chauvinistic kind who feed on a daily dosage of ‘ketuanan Melayu' is fast shrinking.
If Malays cannot accept what the entire Muslim world beyond Malaysia can accept, then it says more about the minds of such Malays and they belong to Umno anyway. So, no loss.
It is about time that we separate the racist, bigoted, narrow-minded extremist Malays from the progressive, inclusive, open-minded and liberal Malays so we can march together as Malaysians into the future without the shackles of ‘ketuanan Melayu'.
May Allah bless Malaysia with more such Malays who will join hands with non-Malays and who do not claim to have exclusive ownership over His name.
1234567: Shame on the so-called Christian federal cabinet ministers from Sabah and Sarawak BN parties, some of whom have been using the word ‘Allah' since young but dare not say a word now.
When you are in Sabah and Sarawak, you call Him ‘Allah' as in the BM Bible. Tell me then, when you are serving your ministerial positions in Semenanjung, how do you call your God? You call him ‘Allah', or have you changed it to ‘Tuhan'?
Don't get me wrong, this is not the question of ‘Tuhan' or ‘Allah', after all God is the same yesterday, today and forever. This is about integrity and bravery to speak up for the right cause, and for the people you are representing.
Anonymous#007: Bravo to the CCM for making this stand. I would also have lauded the Christian Malaysians if they had chosen to do otherwise, because this was and is not an issue created by Allah.
Indeed, this was and is a matter that had been created by man - the handful of Muslims who are so afraid that 'their' Allah is not as great as someone else's Allah, and that their fellow Muslims in Malaysia are all as weak-minded and intellectually-challenged as them.
They couldn't be more wrong - some quarters in PAS have proven there are Muslim Malaysians who can think straight and are able to differentiate reality from delusions.
I have no doubt there will again be unsubstantiated noises from the increasing number of NGOs which had been created and registered for dodgy purposes, but which are really extensions of Umno-BN and possibly full of Umno members, simply to create the impression there are a lot of quarters who are unhappy with this decision.
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(5) Respect court ruling over 'Allah' row, says MCA, 10 January 2013
MCA has urged all Malaysians to respect the High Court's ruling that all Malaysians have the constitutional right to use the term ‘Allah’.
Citing Justice Lau Bee Lan's ruling in Dec 31, 2009, MCA deputy publicity chief Loh Seng Kok said the ruling meant that the term was not exclusive to Muslims.
"All quarters should respect the High Court's decision which ruled that pursuant to Article 11(4) of the federal constitution.
"It is not an offence for non-Muslims to use the word to non-Muslims for the purpose of religion and there is (a) pending appeal by the Home Ministry," he said in a press release today.
Loh was commenting on the renewed debate on the topic sparked by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng's Christmas message, which urged the federal government to allow the use of the term ‘Allah’ in the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible.
Following this, the Selangor Sultan, PAS and other interested groups have weighed in on the subject which was last discussed at great lengths during the Sarawak state legislative assembly election in 2011.
10-point solution
Loh said that the federal government had already come up with a 10-point solution on April 2, 2011 which allowed the Bible, including the Bahasa Malaysia version, to be printed locally and imported.
"(Thus,) we urge all quarters to stop politicising the 'Allah' terminology and recognise this 10-point solution alongside with abiding the High Court's ruling on the 'Allah' terminology.
"Any further debates on this issue will not benefit any quarters, but paradoxically and unhealthily will polarize the nation," he said.
The 10-point solution, which was presented during the Sarawak election campaign, lifts nearly all restrictions on the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible which is widely used in East Malaysia.
Although it was rejected by the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) Youth, the 10-point solution had helped to diffuse the longstanding issue.
Meanwhile, Loh also criticised DAP for focusing on the use of the term ‘Allah’ by Christians only, while failing to recognise that the term is also used by Hindus, Sikhs, Orang Asli and the Baba-Nyonya community.
5. WorldWide Religious News（http://wwrn.org）
Christians Banned From Using Word 'Allah' in Arabic by New Fatwa in Malaysia, 10 January 2013
by Daniel Blake ("The Christian Post," January 10, 2013)
A Malaysian Sultan has issued a fatwa prohibiting non-Muslims from using the word "Allah" in Arabic.
The Sultan of the Malaysian state of Selangor, Sharafuddin Idris Shah, issued the prohibition on Tuesday, according to the Lebanon Debate newspaper.
Malaysian media have reported that the prohibition has been put in place by the Islamic leader because it is a "sacred word," and should be reserved exclusively for Muslims.
The sultan has ordered the Islamic Council of Selangor and the Islamic Affairs Department in the state to take strict action against all groups that question the fatwa and the 1988 Ordinance, which prohibits the use of the word "Allah" in Arabic [by non-Muslims].
The organization representing Protestant churches in Malaysia commented on the decision by saying that Christians in the country have been using the word "Allah" when referring to God for centuries, and they plan to continue to exercise their constitutional right.
Lawyers from a related "Allah" case in 2009, in which a Christian woman challenged the government's confiscation of her religious CDs as they had "Allah" written on them, said that the fatwa goes against the court's decision in that 2009 case.
It also highlights another similar case that ruled Christians would be allowed to import and use bibles in any language.
However, according to MidEast Christian News, that court decision was "followed by a wave of religious violence that swept the country."
The dominant religion in Malaysia is Islam, whose followers make up 61.4 percent of the population, according to the Population and Housing Census of 2010.
Islam is recognized as the state religion of Malaysia, although the country has a secular constitution.
The country has often seen politics become entwined with religion, leading numerous debates to take place on whether Malaysia should be an Islamic or secular state.
According to the 2010 Census, the religious make-up of Malaysia is: 61.4% Islam, 17.8% Buddhism, 9.2% Christian, 6.3% Hinduism, and just over 3% other. Only 0.7% of the population confess to having no religious following.
Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the country's constitution, however, in practice it faces many restrictions. For example, a Malay must be a Muslim. Although non-Malays are more free to practice various faiths, however, if a non-Malay has converted to Islam they technically are prohibited from leaving the faith.
In addition, children born to Muslim parents are considered Muslim, and are prohibited from converting.
If a Muslim does attempt to convert to other religions, they can face punishment by state governments, with punishments reportedly including fines and/or imprisonment.
・Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
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