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Home Dr. Lim Teck Ghee Existential angst in objection to ‘Allah’ use
Existential angst in objection to ‘Allah’ use Print E-mail
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Written by Dr Lim Teck Ghee & Helen Ang   
Tuesday, 05 January 2010 13:39
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We understand the misgivings that Muslims have over the use of ‘Allah’ in the Bahasa Malaysia section of the Catholic Herald weekly newsletter. They have expressed their legitimate concern that the Christian Trinitarian concept of Father, Son and Holy Ghost may be confused with tauhid – the oneness of God in Islam. 

In response, the Malaysian Catholic Church has clarified that ‘Allah’ is used to refer to God the Father. (Also see box, The name of ‘Allah’)

The name of ‘Allah’  

Research committee of IslamToday

The Qur'ân uses the name Allah consistently when referring to the message of all of the prophets and to the various beliefs of all of the people. 
 
Even when the Qur'ân quotes people of other religions saying false things about the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, the word Allah is used.

We have the Christian doctrine of the trinity conveyed in the following verse: "They surely disbelieve who say: 'Lo! Allah is the third of three' when there is no god but the One Allah. If they desist not from so saying a painful doom will fall on those of them who disbelieve." [Sûrah al-Mâ'idah: 73] 

These verses are in Arabic and use the Arabic name Allah. The fact that the Qur'ân does not shy away from using this word even when it speaks about the falsehood of the people of unbelief shows that the name ‘Allah’ is truly universal, and can be used by anyone to refer to the true Creator of the heavens and the Earth. 

Islamic workers who try convey the message of Islam to Jews and Christians have been struggling against the widely held belief/idea that the god of the Muslims is some exotic deity other than the one who sent Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (peace be upon them all). 

[Full citation can be read at www.islamtoday.com] 

Encyclopædia Britannica 

Allah. The name’s origin can be traced back to the earliest Semitic writings in which the word for ‘god’ was Il or El, the latter being an Old Testament synonym for Yahweh. 

Columbia [University Press] Encyclopedia 

(?l´Your browser may not support display of this image. , ä´lYour browser may not support display of this image. ) , [Arab.,=the God]. Derived from an old Semitic root referring to the Divine and used in the Canaanite El, the Mesopotamian ilu, and the biblical Elohim, the word Allah is used by all Arabic-speaking Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others.  

____________________________________________________________ 

So can 1Malaysia now copyright and legislate on the word ‘Allah’? 

 

 

However, this matter of overlapping terminology between the two monotheistic faiths, both sharing Abrahamic roots and prophetic tradition, should not lead to acrimonious and unjustified attacks.

As we write this, the online version of the Herald appears to be inoperative again, after being hacked twice earlier in the wee hours of the morning. Cybertroopers have disrupted a law-abiding, peaceable Christian web portal to the extent that Google search has tagged Herald with the warning: ‘This site may harm your computer’.

Contrary to the Prime Minister calling for calm and his assurance that cooler heads will prevail, certain quarters in Umno have been ramping up the temperature since the court ruling on the use of the word ‘Allah’ with regard to the Herald publication.

Looking at the rush of disconcerting events flavoured by Ketuanan Melayu, our fear is that, as a result, the fervour instigated by these hardliners following the High Court decision on Dec 31 there might be stirrings of social unrest.

The mass mobilization has already spread to cyberspace.

‘Menentang Penggunaan Allah oleh Golongan Bukan-Islam’ (Against Non-Muslims using the word Allah) is a Facebook group whose chief officer-cum-advisor is Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah. Among its other site administrators are those Umno-accredited, including from Pemuda and Puteri, and Mukhriz Mahathir who mirrors his father’s stand on many issues.

Since its first cyber activity commenced on Friday (Jan 1), the e-group has attracted a surge of 60,000 members banding together for the cause.

Meanwhile, a Muslim grouping calling itself Mapim (Majlis Perunding Pertubuhan-Pertubuhan Islam Malaysia) has launched an online petition against Herald, and hoping to collect one million signatures.

Their memorandum suggesting the option “Tidak setuju sama sekali dan membantah sekeras-kerasnya keputusan tersebut” [Totally disagree and object strenuously to the court decision] is addressed to the Council of Rulers and the Prime Minister.

Other agitation in cyberspace

For Utusan and Awang Selamat’s take, please read Dr Lim Teck Ghee’s ‘Use of the term ‘Allah’: Who is threatening whom?

Various pro-Umno blogs have begun exploiting the controversy to portray Pakatan Rakyat and other bodies – that have taken a softer and more conciliatory stance – as anti-Islam.

More than a dozen NGOs have lodged police reports against the Herald.

Meanwhile, at the grassroots level, some 250 Umno Youth members in Penang took to the street on Jan 3 shouting “seditious obscenities”, according to it a Malaysian Insider report.

Umno representative Tajuddin Abdul Rahman – who indulges in sexual innuendos and ‘Keling’ name-calling in Parliament and once challenged DAP Parliamentarian M. Kulasegaran to step outside the House for a fistfight – delivered his trademark cutting remarks. The Pasir Salak MP declared: “This is definitely provocation; they are just using all this human rights, religious rights as excuses.”

This type of assertion like Tajuddin’s, coupled with statements by others who label the Herald publishers as “Christian activists” imply that the Catholics had not only been “provocative” but proactive in creating the current stand-off.

Instead, the reverse is closer to reality as the minorities are the ones reacting defensively after having their long-held tradition disturbed. According to Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew, Christian natives in Borneo have been using ‘Allah’ for 400 years.

Yet ex-Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo blogged that the court decision, allowing Herald to continue calling God ‘Allah’, had put back [membelakangkan] the position of Islam in the Constitution. He advised “let it be a lesson”, and Muslims should now realise how this outcome signalled that some among the ummah themselves are “traitors” through their support for [opposition] groups that ultimately cause Islam to weaken.

Dr M wades in

But what we definitely do not need is more stoking of religious tensions by Dr Mahathir Mohamad. True to form, he poured oil on fire with his snide warning: “What I am afraid of is that the term ‘Allah’ might be used in such a way that could inflame the anger of Muslims …”

Now why would the Catholic community in Malaysia want to characterize ‘Allah’ whom they, too, respectfully worship, in any way that would anger anyone, we do not understand.

This faith group is after all an old, quiet one that has never been aggressive in proselytizing in Malaysia.

Today the country has a projected population of close to 29 million and the proportion of Catholics is even smaller than the 3.17% estimated some years ago. It is surely far-fetched to allege that this tiny minority could, through its several meagre pages of BM weekly homilies and articles somehow or other, undermine the entrenched position of Islam.

Herald is after all only a newsletter with restricted circulation and strictly for its faithful churchgoers.

We must not forget either that in Malaysia, the Malay and Muslim body politic widely curbs the public platform and reach of non-Muslim teachers. We don’t have theological lectures and programmes on religions other than Islam on national radio and TV or at officially sanctioned functions.

Thus one would expect more sense from the ever interfering, never retiring ex-premier rather than Dr Mahathir’s gung-ho, inflammatory statement.

Or is he implying that during his 22-year tenure, the position of Islam as religion of the Federation has been eroded rather than strengthened; that the religious understanding of the ummah has been diminished rather than expanded?

Comments (14)
  • najib manaukau  - najib manaukau

    What a waste of time to debate with this Indian turned Malay and soon will turn or shall I say pollute the Chinese blood with his transformation like David Copperfield to have Chinese descendants. His descendants are already having more Chinese blood in them than that of a Malay or the Indian. Please do your utmost to keep this pollution in the sewage tank where it rightly belongs and don't pollute the Chinese blood line please Allah please. 50% Chinese blood is already bad enough now.

  • anon

    So God is a copyrighted property and I suppose Yahweh is own by the Jews; Jehovah is own by the Christians and Allah is own by the Muslims. Clearly, you all are sinned to abuse HIS name

    If this goes out of hand, then there will be another MAY 13 incident coming this year and this time it will goes live on international TV!

  • soul survivor  - umno dirty game

    umno is doing it again!plying tricks and decoy to things that they created first.this so-called issue is NEVER an issue at all but rather umno old-dirty-antics to inflame instability among malaysians.umno last resort to stay in power is to create havoc ala-may13th and they would go for anything to trigger such evil political game!umno must saty in power AT WHATEVER COSTs becoz if they are out...all the bad books will reveal all their past 50 corrupted years!!!umno has long displaced Allah but instead has embraced their NEW GOD i.e MONEY,MONEY,MONEY!!!pretending defending Allah is PLAIN UMNO HYPOCRITES!...now umno u are really really towards yr end coz playing narrow-minded,pathethic,hypocrites political-milage with this so-called issue which is,reversed-psycologically initiated by u in the firt place,....will be SURELY YR END-GAME!all the while u are playing dirty politics with yr own-being but now yr dirty souls failed to see that u are playing fool with THE CREATOR HIMSELF!

  • Idi  - The only one

    I dont think it is all about political ploy or UMNO at it again. This is something about how, many Malaysian Malays think about the whole issue. Of course each one of us has got different views depends on ones level of understanding and what backgroung we come from, but in Allahs eyes, HE does not categorise human being. The one that differentiate one from the others is our Character, Moral Values and Conducts. If all of us believe that there is only one God, so that God must be the same God that we called Allah

  • Samuel Goh Kim Eng  - What's In A Name?

    WHAT'S IN A NAME?

    While a rose will smell just as sweet by any other name
    It's through its specific scent that any rose gets its fame
    Yet we're encouraged to "call a spade a spade"
    Thus do we need to ban any name or keep it in the shade?

    (C) Samuel Goh Kim Eng - 060110
    http://MotivationInMotion.blogspot.com
    Wed. 6th Jan. 2010.

  • Houndini  - It's the same God

    I don't understand why the big fuss about the use of 'Allah.' Clearly if everyone check it up, the one & only God in Islam, Christianity & Judaism are the same.

    What differentiates the 3 big religion then? It's their teachings about the path to salvation.

    1. Judaism way is through strict adherence to the 'Law' of Moses.

    2. Islamic way is through works.

    3. Christianity way is through Jesus Christ.

  • soul survivor  - idi idi

    well idi,u,me and every single human being in this world from tibet to the last piece of land in new zealand and from madagaskar to the last piece of glacier in artic....we all are from ONE CREATOR and ONE ORIGIN.as TG nik aziz once said...'kita semua cucu nabi adam a.s'!its thru that one can talk on anything and on any issue dpending on one's life exposure and understanding.if u were to ask 1000 people,u'll get 1000 opinions.in malaysia,u just have to look things a bit deeper and well umno politics is something that we have to take into accounts.either u are plain ignorent or school-boy innocent or u are mature enough to READ BEHIND LINES!i'm all with the high court decision and to me the issue is never the word Allah.Allah has and will always in and within u and me,idi!it just that the worldly materialistic things seem to have forgotten us and most humans.i'm a professional and have travelled to most part of the globe and to me since malaysia is my homeland.i'm duty bound to make sure this country is changed for the better.if we failed to read umno games then borrowing from tun mahathir words 'this country is rotten to the core'!!!

  • Samuel Goh Kim Eng  - Used To Be Confused?

    USED TO BE CONFUSED?

    How not to confuse
    When glaringly refuse
    To now allow public use
    Of what has been in use

    (C) Samuel Goh Kim Eng - 070110
    http://MotivationInMotion.blogspot.com
    Thur. 7th Jan. 2010.

  • Anon  - Much ado about nothing

    Allah Himself must be amused by the storm in the tea-cup caused by the Holier than Thou people in this country. Why this Much Ado About Nothing? If the word is only for the Muslims, then who knows that word may have the power to convert the Catholics into Islam by allowing it to be used in their newsletter? Why be threatened by it if your faith is deep-rooted in your religion? By the way the newsletter is strictly for Catholics. So what's the problem? Why dig up a can of worms? Don't we already have enough problems here? Or are there some ulterior motives behind all this? All we are saying- Give Peace a Chance!!!!!

  • Anon  - Why burn down churches?

    Did Allah specifcally instruct these people to burn down churches for using His name in the Catholic newsletter or is it terrorism rearing its ugly head to persecute the Christians? No matter what they feel or think, Allah has no part in their despicable acts. Christians are peace-loving people who want to worship Him the best they know how. Evil deeds do not originate from Him but from the accuser and the destroyer Satan. Allah does not look upon one group of people who call Him Allah with favour and another group who address Him differently with contempt.All need to know the heart of God that His ways are not our ways. Unless we learn to accept this there will not be any peace anywhere and people will act on behalf of Him thus destroying the human race He loves.

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