The issue of
the word “Allah” in the Malay Bible has now become a world issue, or at least,
that’s what the Christians in Malaysia are trying to do.
It looks like
they have already managed to do so, when they finally get the attention of the
Wall Street Journal, which published an article about it, entitled ‘Between God
and Allah’. WSJ began the article by stating that the Muslims in
Malaysia have been using the word ‘Allah’ for ‘God’ since 200 years ago - which
is only half truth!
We sense a
synchronized agenda between "the Christians" and WSJ, when both failed to acknowledge
that the non-Muslims in the Peninsular have never used the word ‘Allah’ for
‘God’ because ‘Allah’ is not a direct translation of ‘God’.
The word
‘Allah’ for ‘God’ is only used in the East Malaysia and they can still continue
using it without any restriction. There is no new regulation or law
to stop them from doing so. There is no sudden change in the
practice like what is reported by WSJ.
The
restriction is only applied in the Peninsular. Again, this is not a
new regulation or a new law, but has been written very clearly, ever
since.
As far as
Malaysians in the Peninsular are concerned, this should have never been an
issue at all since Malaysia has a clear guidelines and law that disallow the
word ‘Allah’ among few Arabic words, to be used by the non-Muslims in their
religious documents, activities or practices. The word ‘Allah’ is
strictly not allowed to be used to refer to other entity or being but ‘The One
and Only God who has no son, nor father’.
Christians in
Malaysia have never before questioned this Law until very recently when Father
Lawrence Andrew decided to break it and challenged the court and the Sultan of
Selangor by insisting on using the word ‘Allah’ to refer to Christian’s God ie
‘Father’ or ‘Lord’ in churches in Peninsular. Not enough of
that, the Christians then strike again when the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM)
distributed bibles with the word ‘Allah’ in them.
Clearly, the
Christians are asking for trouble.
The State
Islamic Religious Department acted to the challenge and provocation by using
their power to seize the bibles. Their raiding of the BSM’s premise
took a turn on them when they are made to look like a bully and the Christians
as the victim. The fact that it is BSM and Father Andrew who had
broken the Law has somehow faded into thin air.
Since the case
has been taken to court and since the Law is written very clearly, the Muslim
do not see the needs to pay much attention to the issue in the first
place.
However, it
has become clear that Father Andrew and his followers are a bunch of
troublemakers who just have problems abiding the law. They cannot
let Malaysians of all religions live peacefully like we always do. They
just have to pick a fight on the Muslims just for the fun of
it. They must drag the world into their game, as spectators and
judges.
There is no
way to explain their stubbornness when they cannot give even one good reason
why the Christians suddenly feel the need to give their God a name that is, the
same name as the Muslim’s? In their argument, they say that
‘Allah’ is a common God to all religions and there shouldn’t be any issue on
whatever we call Him.
Using the same
argument, the Muslims asked, “if ‘name’ is not an issue why not just use any
other name that does not offend anybody?”
And then the
Christians argued that ‘Allah’ is the perfect Malay-translation for
‘God’.
The truth is,
‘Allah’ is an exclusive name not a general word for ‘God’ – the exact and
perfect translation for ‘God’ in Malay is ‘Tuhan’.
These
evangelists action makes the Muslims in Malaysia even more skeptical about the
Christian’s missionary agenda. The Muslims are afraid that these
missionaries will target the weak and ignorant Malay-Muslims to convert them
into Christians by confusing them with the Malay-translated Bibles with the
word ‘Allah’ in it.
For all we
know, these missionaries can always spread Christianity just the same by using
the word ‘Father’ or ‘Lord’. Therefore, it almost seems that these
missionaries just want to prey on weak souls like cunning foxes.
Surely, it all
will eventually come to a question of the strength of one’s faith, but then,
the Muslims believe that opening the gates to let the weak souls out, will be a
question needed to be answered by all Muslims. As such, might as
well keep the gate closed as it will not offend or harm anybody, plus it will
also help guarantee peace and harmony in the country.
