If you want something less deep, go read my previous post. If you want to read this post, you can only agree. Or shaddap. I won’t tolerate any arguments. My blog, my opinions are always right. Take it or just go play far-far.
I picked up this article and I must comment on it.
Excerpts from the Malaysiakini article, taken from Malaysians Say The Darndest Things!:
The word ‘Allah’ can only be used in the context of Islam and not any other religion, said Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum.
Asked why a new condition will be imposed on Catholic weekly newspaper Herald when its annual publishing permit is next renewed, the deputy minister said this is to prevent confusion.
“Only Muslims can use ‘Allah’. It’s a Muslim word, you see. It’s from (the Arabic (language). We cannot let other religions use it because it will confuse people,” he said when contacted today.
“We cannot allow this use of ‘Allah’ in non-Muslim publications, nobody except Muslims. The word ‘Allah’ is published by the Catholics. It’s not right.”
The Herald is available to us through our Catholic churches and some Catholic shops. It is a weekly newsletter and if anyone read with an open heart, they will notice how we Catholics are very community minded and we only jaga our own kain and not jaga tepi kain orang. The Herald brings all the Catholic churches in Malaysia together by sharing the events taking place at the churches. Other than that, there are news from around the world and also messages from the Pope.
Only with an open heart, can a person outside of the Catholic churches value what this newsletter shares. I can personally attest that there was never a situation where the newsletter produce any biased views. Even when Lina Joy’s case was going on, we were only told to pray over the issue. We were not told to ‘Pray to win’. When the group of PAS members demonstrated outside the Silibin church, we were only informed that it was a misunderstanding that they thought Datuk Azahar is going to get baptised. You get the drift? There is no such thing as batu api in the newsletter and I can safely say that wise people will know the truth. Of course, there are always morons out there who will pick up a sentence or two and then, tear the real situation apart. Nay….like that some what what blogger who accused Pope Benedict is as cruel as Osama Bin Laden?
In our private circle, we do know that Bukit Aman does have their people watching the homilies. Homily is what the priest shares with us every week. As a regular church goer, I dare to say that we have nothing that promotes hate or disrespect. So, do I sense a great fear and insecurity from our Government over something as innocent as this?
Yes, we have called God, Allah or Yahweh. We have hymns in Bahasa Malaysia that worship Allah. In The Herald, there are sections in Bahasa Malaysia, Tamil and Mandarin. The Bahasa Malaysia section is meant for those orang asli who don’t read English. Yes, I do read the Bahasa Malaysia section too. These are usually written by the priests from the East Malaysia.
Now, I personally think this is a very petty action from the Government. Sure, if you want to insist we stop using Allah in The Herald, you can do it. But ask yourself, what do you achieve from this? That you have helped God Almighty to glorify Islam? Or have you caused God to grief that you are denying others to know God?
Why do you want to do it? Why not promote Islam in other languages more? Oh yes, we have them, on TV too.
It takes a person with very strong faith to acknowledge that we Catholics believe in the Holy Trinity. We believe in God the Father, Jesus, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit which is Roh Suci (?) to us. A 3-in-1 entity. I know many Muslims are very against us because they cannot tell the differences. They hate the idea that we insist Jesus is God Himself. I know I would too if I have that much devotion to the last prophet. I have no problem with that and that’s why I never refute what craps Menj dished out. I see him as another God loving person who demanded full ownership of his God. Not only Muslims, other Christians denomination too sometimes have problem with how we Catholics worship God. That is fine too. If you don’t want to acknowledge Mother Mary the way we do, that’s not a problem.
I hate to say this openly but I wish to tell these people, “Eh, jangan jaga tepi kain orang. Tengok belia-belia kamu sendiri. Bau tahi ayam untuk shiok? WTF?” Does the action to stop us from calling God Allah makes your religion much more purer? Will that help you in arresting the problems of your own youths? Will it solves all the maksiat-maksiat like fathers raping daughter, incest, drugs, unwanted babies thrown into longkangs etc etc?
I live very near the state mosque and I know what kind of sermon goes on. I know how much your people are taught to hate all the infidels, manusia-manusia yang sesat, orang-orang barat yang tidak beragama, mereka-mereka yang tidak diberkati Allah…yadda yadda yadda. We have always been referred as the bad ones, those who do not know the Muslims’ Allah. Ever thought that maybe if you have less of these fears and insecurities injected to your people, maybe, just maybe more of us will want to know your Allah?
I grew up in an all Malay school and I attended kelas agama for several years in my primary school. The Allah I know is the one that is Maha pengampun, Maha penyayang. But the image of Allah that you are showing to us is one that is sooooo scared of everything. Scared of us building places of worship. Scare of us promoting Christianity to your people. Scared of us doing anything that shows our love for God. Mana boleh? Kita semua tak semestinya menyembah Tuhan dengan satu cara sahaja. Yang penting, biarlah kita berusaha menolong mereka-mereka yang kurang upaya, miskin dan kurang bernasib baik. The only way to worship God is to promote peace, harmony and love amongst one another.
So, Pak Lah, your administration has failed badly.
Signed :
A Catholic, an individual who believes in speaking her mind.
REMINDER : Either you agree with me, or you go elsewhere and say what you want. If you got no place to say your piece, you can put your head into the toilet bowl, flush and scream as you flush. This is my blog and there is no such thing as democracy. I am not interested to hear any arguments about religion. I am talking about how our Malaysia Government deals with issues related to other religions, other than Islam.
Added :
An explanation on the origin of the name Allah by Dan-yel.
If you’ve been following RPK’s posts, this is exactly one of the plans he mentioned, that is used by the government to sow discord among different religion in Malaysia, then they will come in and ‘defend’ Islam and win back Malay votes.
Don’t fall for their attempts to sow discord among Muslims and other religions. They’re trying to create a distraction by targetting other religions and hoping they will retaliate and then give Umno/govt a chance to unite Muslims through the use of religion.
shadowfox – Yeah, when I watched the ’10 tahun sebelum Merdeka’, I only know about the trick. It is the same trick used by the angmohs. They know the story of the ‘one stick and a bunch of sticks’.
Kak lilian,
Can I put this over at my journal since I won’t be able to put what I feel about this more clearly?
Thanks so much 🙂
Ah lah Pak Lah, why lah??? (like that can use ar?)
All faiths are pure. Its only idiots that misinterpret and tarnish them. Alternatively, they can come and worship Terence.
It would be an eye opener for most people to read Richard Dawkins’s “THE GOD DELUSION” – a most elegant book on his thoughts on religion written with intelligence and clarity; which is sadly, most lacking from most when it comes to religion.
Happy Christmas, Lillian.
How come you took Agama lessons in school? O_O
Julia : Being in the class. Did I say I took the lessons? Is this question even relevant to the whole topic?
they seems want to control everything. sigh……
I agree with you. ‘Coz we sama gang! And you’ve said almost exactly how I felt lor. 😀
wonderfully written piece! another reason to add on to my list of ‘why malaysia sux’. muslims r always paranoid with issues touching on their beliefs or specifically, christianity. if muslims are that STRONG in faith, that their religion is the true-est, then why shud they fear of other religions (ie Christianity, which is inferior to Islam in their context) using wat kind of terms they want to denote God? why shud they fear of Christian missionary works in malaysia (and in other muslim countries)? why shud they fear of Christians and other religious adherents building their places of worship? bcos of the im-purification of wat is to become a Muslim state? I mean, if you believe that ur religion is so true and the only one that leads to God, and that your religious doctrines are strong enuff to persuade people into believing it, what for they fear of ths and that?
(lol, I have to censor this last sentence, sorry)
this is not the first time the govt doing this la.they too sensitive liao..what also restrain..nx time ah…most prob we cant go out at night.all must stay at home by 6pm like darurat last time.
what has the world become??sadness…
Being a catholic myself i cant comprehend anything wrong with using the word “Allah”, which we have been using in our BM hymms as I remember from school days. They are juz trying to create somemore friction – not enuff for the friction done on the indians (ie Hindraf) now the catholics then later dunno wat….
It is difficult to ignore when stupid people are in large groups…
It is quite evident that this is an election ploy to win the Malay votes as mentioned by ShadowFox. They can’t be fools for not knowing that the word Allah has been used by churches in Malaysia for so many years (maybe even before independance) in reference to God. As I suspect they have lost lots of support from the Malays in recent months, the use of religion in political warfare seems the right thing to do.
If at all they are going to disallow the use of the word Allah in reference to other Gods, they should (1), file for proprietary rights over the word and (2), teach it so in Bahasa Malaysia class in schools. That would be a 1st in this world. Guess who would be the laughing stock. Fools do not realise how much of a fool they are…God have mercy on them.
Pablo : LOL, Imagine – Hakcipta terpelihara and we need to add that little (c) copyright everytime the name is used.
Hey folks, thanks for all the understanding comments. Sorry I couldn’t find time to reply to everyone of u cos I am so busy with last minute Christmas preparation.
well said, Lilian.
just thought you might like to know that the more widely used term for Holy Spirit in malay/bahasa indonesia is Roh Kudus.
cheers, and have a blessed Christmas. 🙂
simplylah = Actually…I know it is Roh Kudus but hor, I am not sure Kudus means what. LOL, at the back of my mind, I know there is a Malay peribahasa with lipas ku-something. Doesn’t kudus means broken? Like losing one leg likedat? Can enlighten?
ALLAH save us all from the malaysian government wahahahahahah
Hmm…by the way, I can’t help but wondering whether our counterparts in Indonesia also refer to God (as in the Trinitarian God) as Allah. If that were so, we are gonna have another friendly neighbourhood tiff again 😉 LOL!
Owh God save us all.
EEi your post button damn cute!
while we try to protect the usage of that word… we should not retaliate… lest they will use this as a reason to unite them.
Zewt : Now who is retaliating? Expressing an opinion and standing up for my faith is part of my responsibility as a Catholic. I hope you have spent this few lines wishing my readers and I a merry Xmas instead of making a oneliner like this.
Catholics, like me, should keep on praying and continue reading the Herald. Let the matter of Allah be brought to Parliament and then God forbid, passed a law banning the use of Allah for non-muslims in Malaysia. Only then all non-muslims will stop using Allah in our beloved country. Meanwhile, we continue to praise and worship God or Allah or Tuhan without fear from mere mortals.
“It’s a Muslim word…We cannot let other religions use it…”
Hah-hah-hah!
Then they should start saying “We cannot let other religions use BM. Must speak and write with their own mother tongue.” Like serious, why do these ret@rded people have to speak up in the first place?
Dear Lilian,
I ve been visiting ur blogs wen I m free n I ve enjoyed them, good job n I m sorry to read how upset u r abt this issue.
Pls dont think that Muslims hate christians (despite the nearby mosque’s sermons, pls but i hate George bush) since Muslims at large have accepted the differences between Islam n christianity etc as the the quranic surah Al-Kafirrun that u may have already learned at school n had God wanted everyone to be Muslims, He would have done so easily.
While i understand your anger, I just want to share my opinion on the possible reason why many Muslims are objecting to this use.
As you know, the greatest sin for Muslims is being a murtad, that is an unforgiveable sin n frankly that is the biggest fear of a muslim parent that her child would become murtad. Lets not go into why Muslim youths would become murtad etc etc but there are massive missionary movements who actively try to convert muslims internationally, for example the especially targeted Indian Bihari Muslims due to their poverty. Some muslims simply think that the use of Allah to refer to God by christians is simply a ruse/ a missionary tactic to confuse/lure the ignorant muslim youths into christianity.
i m not trying to justify the whole thing but i wud like to think that wenever sthg happens , we shud try to reflect wat the actual issue is.
I m sorry if i ve offended u Lilian, have a merry christmas.
Noraini : The real issue is what Shadowfox said and which everyone else agree.