'Allah' in Malaysia: mine, yours or ours
(from Newzzit; the original story is here http://newzzit.com/stories/allah-in-malaysia-mine-yours-or-ours)
Quick Summary
The word 'Allah' is used by Muslims, Christians, Mizrahi Jews, Maltese and even Sikhs the world over. Most notably in Egypt, the Coptic Christians begin their Christmas Mass with “Bismillah” (in the name of God) and use the word 'Allah' throughout.
Some Muslims in Malaysia claim that Christians use the word 'Allah' as they want to confuse and convert Muslims to Christianity. This, they say, will pose a national security threat.
Contrarily, churches in Malaysia claim that such an assertion is baseless and the word used for God in the Bahasa Malaysia Bible (Al-Kitab) since its translation in 1731, is ‘Allah’. In English services, 'Allah' is not used nor the churches have ever suggested changing the word ‘God’ to ‘Allah’ in other languages of the Bible, Christians claim.
Malaysia,our next-door neighbour, is fast becoming infamousfor a raging debate and legal battle over 'patenting' the word'Allah'. The controversy started in 2007 when Malaysian Governmentordered a catholic newspaper, The Herald [published by ArchdiocesanPastoral Centre in Kuala Lumpur], to stop using the word 'Allah'in its Bahasa Malayisa publication.
Sincethen, after many twists and turns, the dispute has reached the Courtof Appeal, which, on September 10, stated that it will announce itsverdict “no later than October, and with written justification”.Importantly, Malaysia,has a population of about 28 million, of which 60% are Muslims, andChristianity is the third largest religion (after Buddhism) withabout 2.6 million followers.
Amidst all this chaos and wait forthe final verdict, some sane voices have appealed for clam andharmony.
Malaysia'sformer prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, in a blogpost titled, The 'Allah' Controversy, wrote, “Malaysia is amulti-religious country and Malaysians respect each others’religions and the rights of the religious practises of theirfollowers. Unfortunately, now we have this controversy on the use ofthe name of God, 'Allah'. Religious confrontations can lead to veryserious consequences. While we can have political differences, weshould not resort to our religious differences to win elections. Itis a double-edged sword and those who live by the sword shall die bythe sword. Let this controversy be settled behind closed doors byresponsible people. Let not the extremists take over and exploitreligious issues.”
BishopPaul Tan, who is the immediate past president of the CatholicsBishops’ Conference of Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, whilewriting in The Herald said,“The use of the word 'Allah', is a non-issue really. It becomes anissue when it is being politicised, which is the case in Malaysia.”
Writer,academicianand columnist, Azly Rahman, who recently published a booktitled, The 'Allah' Controversy and Other Essays on MalaysianHyper-modernity.
“Atthis point in human evolution, in this age of reconciliation of thepost-Mayan calendar, Malaysians (especially Christians and Muslims)need to be less childish in the fight over patenting and branding‘god’. It is a name conceived differently anyway, as different ashow each soul conceives the Divine. Whether one calls god Allah, TheLord, Brahma-Shiva-Vishnu, Bhagwan, Waheguru, Yahweh, or Hashem ornot call it anything at all but refer to it in mere silence andreverie, the ultimate aim is to ‘connect’, and hence the Latinterm ‘religio’ which loosely means ‘to connect’. Herein liesthe limits of language insofar as the naming of ‘god’ isconcerned,” argued Rahman.
Casecharge-sheet
2007:Government orders The Herald to stop using the word 'Allah' in itspublication. Herald doesn't comply stating that it had been using'Allah' in its Bahasa Malaysia [the country's national language]publication since 1995. Subsequently,The Herald is banned from publishing for two weeks. Inresponse, catholic church leaders sued the Government in the HighCourt for violating Article 11 of the Malaysian constitution whichguarantees “the right of religious practice for all withoutconstraints or restrictions”. The church leaders also argued thatChristians of Malaysian provinces, Sabah and Sarawak, have used theword 'Allah' for generations and Malay bibles imported from Indonesiahad been using the word 'Allah' “for generations withoutcomplaint”.
2009:The High Court ruled that the decision to ban The Herald was illegal,unconstitutional, and therefore null and void. Judge Lau Bee Lan alsoadded the Government is not empowered to impose a ban on the use ofthe word 'Allah' by Christians, who have equal right to use it.
What followed was a wave of violence,ransacking, break-ins, fire-bombing and vandalising churches andother places of worships. Sikh temples were also attacked, apparentlybecause Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism's holy scripture, contains theword 'Allah' as a reference to God in 37 places.
The Government in an attempt toappease extremist elements and control the ongoing violence appealedagainst the High Court ruling.
2011:The Malaysian Government in April, just ahead of Sarawak elections,announced a 10-point solution to resolve the dispute. It stated thatBibles in any language can be imported into Malaysia and there willbe no restrictions for people travelling between East and WestMalaysia to bring along their Bibles and other Christian materials.
2013:
August22:The Court of Appeal dismissed a request by catholic leaders whichsought to strike out the Government's appeal against the earlierjudgement of the High Court permitting the use of the word 'Allah' toChristians.
September10: TheCourt of Appeal heard arguments from both sides. Government defendedthe ban on The Herald saying that it had exercised its “absolutediscretion” in implementing the ban which was necessitated “inorder to protect public safety and order”.
October:Verdict awaited