The Allah Issue

*Allah is an Arabic word referring to God.

Chronology of events
2007

Home ministry threatened to suspend publishing permit of

newspaper The Herald for use of the word

2009

Lower court ruling allowed use of the word Allah

Jan 2010 -

Burning of 10 churches within 8 days, Metro Tabernacle Assembly of

God suffered the greatest damage

Oct 2013 -

Kuala Lumpur High court judgement government ban on use of word.

Applies to published materials e.g newspaper but not spoken words

Jan 2014 -

Seizing of hundreds of Bibles containing the word

Factors behind Allah issue

1. Authority says that using the word can confuse muslims and entice them to
convert, which is a crime
2. Some muslims feel that Allah should be only used exclusively for Muslims
3. May have been used as a political leverage to secure conservative muslim
voters

Implications of the Church Burning Incident

Racial tension becomes even stronger
Burning down of churches causes mostly,the Non-muslims to condemn the action and
to figure a way to payback. Racial tension and misunderstanding among races

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becomes even stronger.The disaster becomes opportunity for everyone to point fingers
and start fighting.
Loss of historically valuable place
The burning of the Church of Assumption in Penang which was founded in 1786 is a
great loss for our history.Besides , St Elizabeth Catholic church in Kota Kecil near
was splashed with red paint.This definitely mars the image of the church which was
founded in 1558.
Image of our country falls globally
World Evangelical Alliance condemns the burning of churches in Malaysia.Dr. Dr.
Geoff Tunnicliffe, Secretary General of the WEA states that burning of a sacred place
is wrong and unwarranted. The burning of the churches is especially grievous to
Christians and does not reflect the spirit of the Lord whom we serve.
Disaster becomes opportunity for many
Burning of churches was said to be an inside job done to cause racial tension in
Malaysia. A race based political party in Malaysia was the main target of the media
and newsperson. The burning was said to be done simply to cause the conflict during
the important times of election.

Usage of the word in other countries

Egypt

: Both Muslims and Christians refer to God as Allah

Indonesia

: Muslim and Christians use Allah

Muslim pronounce as Al-loh
Christians pronounce as Al-lah

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The Different Perspectives

People are blaming each other for what happened, including the Christians, muslims,
the government, and also the judge. Many however, put the blame on the government.
Najib was very unhappy when being questioned if the politicians, specifically from
the UMNO should be blamed for inciting riots, and Najibs reply was, Jangan
menuding jari ke atas UMNO ataupun mana-mana pihak. Kami sentiasa sangat
bertanggungjawab, jangan kata serangan ini dihasut oleh UMNO.

From an Arabs mouth, who has been in both worlds, Christianity and
Islam, who was born in a Lebanese Christian family, then moved to US,
following his mother who married an American, Dr Gibriel commented:

Christianity is a big religion. In all religions, there will be a "deity". Focus of

worship. Any religion's deity will have Specific Name (Nama Khas), and this
name will be maintained, regardless of local languages and changes of
locations of worship. In Hindu, there will be Siva, Vishnu, etc. Where ever the
Hindu is, same name will be used in their worship. Are we saying now, that
there is no Specific Deity and Deity name in Christianity? So desperate is the
situations, that Christians need to change and follow based on localities, and
locations? Even in English Dictionaries, even in Britannica, "Allah" is the
name of the "deity" for Muslims. Allah" is NOT a Malay word.

Why is it that Malaysian Catholics, and Pakiam, is suddenly desperately

running out of words to call their God, and has to borrow the specific name of
"deity" of Muslims? If they want to be localized and patriotic, the Malay word
for God is Tuhan. Why insist on Allah?If it is so important for Malaysian
Christians to pray in bahasa melayu, then it is Tuhan. Allah is not bahasa
melayu, but, is the name of God in Islam, which is the religion embraced by
most malays.

Dr Gibriel highlighted that the three different versions of prayers before eating
or before sleeping, either catholic, protestant, or orthodox, are almost the
same. All used the term "Our Father In The Heaven", not even the word God.

After the Kuala Lumpur High Court struck down the three-year old ban on nonMuslims using of the word Allah, some major Muslim organisations, including the
Islamic political party, PAS, have agreed with the court, saying other Abrahamic
religions - Christianity and Judiasm - may use the word.
But some vocal groups, including the Muslim Youth Movement, Abim, have cast the
use of the word Allah as a surreptitious effort on the part of Christians to try to seduce
Muslims away from Islam.The government has appealed against the court verdict and
the High Court has suspended the decision's implementation until the appeal is heard.

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Food for Thought

Why is the issue brought up now when the word has been used for so long?

Is the ban politically motivated?

Fundamental rights of minorites not considered

How could the attacks on the houses of worship be avoided?

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