Malaysian Govt. prohibits Christians from using the term Allah!
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Peace All,
I just read this and was amazed. o
Malaysian Govt. prohibits Christians from using the term Allah!
Your thoughts please.Malaysian row over word for 'God' (From BBC News)
Religious freedom is guaranteed under Malaysian law
A church and Christian newspaper in Malaysia are suing the government after it decreed that the word "Allah" can only be used by Muslims.
In the Malay language "Allah" is used to mean any god, and Christians say they have used the term for centuries.Opponents of the ban say it is unconstitutional and unreasonable.
It is the latest in a series of religious rows in largely Muslim Malaysia, where minority groups claim their rights are being eroded.
A spokesman for the Herald, the newspaper of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, said a legal suit was filed after they received repeated official warnings that the newspaper could have its licence revoked if it continued to use the word.
"We are of the view that we have the right to use the word 'Allah'," said editor Rev Lawrence Andrew.
'Unlawful'
The Sabah Evangelical Church of Borneo has also taken legal action after a government ministry moved to ban the import of religious children's books containing the word.
In a statement given to Reuters news agency, the church said the translation of the bible in which the word Allah appears has been used by Christians since the earliest days of the church.
There has been no official government comment but parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the decision to ban the word for non-Muslims on security grounds was "unlawful".
"The term 'Allah' was used to refer to God by Arabic-speaking Christians before Arabic-speaking Muslims existed," he said.
Religious issues are highly sensitive in Malaysia, which has a 60% Muslim population.
Religious freedom is guaranteed in the law but minority groups have accused the Muslim Malay majority of trying to increase the role of Islam in the country.
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http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7163391.stm
Ridiculous move. The purpose of the quran is to unite people and here sectarians are doing the exact opposite under the guise of defense.
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It seems alot of offensive moves have been made in the name of defense.
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I used to think Malaysia was a progressive country. But apparently I was wrong. All they have is economy. But racial and religious tolerances are not very good there.
In my country Indonesia the Christians use the word 'Allah' too. And as far as I know even in the Middle East the Christians use the same word.
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As far as I know Allah is the only word any Arabic speaking, Christian or Muslim or otherwise has to say "God".
Going back to the news, I found them weird enough to want to go the the origin of it. On googling, I don't get anything from Malaysia, but only a news from Reuters and the already quoted from bbc, which although by putting up misleading headlines may give a different impression, in fact doesn't speak of any law prohibiting the use of the word but merely of some ministerial order on the importing of published material. I found the Catholic newspaper which was supposed to be suing the Ministry of interior for this, but on first sight I didn't find anything on this question and on second sight you need to register and all that to read any further. So I looked into other Malaysian press, and don't seem to find anything either. And here I quote what MIGHT be related to that, but it is just a suspicion, because no background is given.
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Herald gets good news
By ELIZABETH LOOI
PETALING JAYA The publisher of Herald - The Catholic Weekly newspaper, which reports on the Catholic community in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Tamil and Chinese, has had its permit renewed.
The editor, Reverend Father Lawrence Andrew, said a representative from the Internal Security Ministry delivered the letter of approval, dated Dec 28, by hand at 10am Sunday.
"We thank (Minister in the Prime Minister's Department) Tan Sri Bernard Dompok for his assistance, as well as the various news agencies and other media groups for supporting us with their wide coverage," Father Lawrence said in a statement.
The paper has a circulation of 12,000 among the Catholic community.
When contacted, Dompok said he had brought the matter to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi a few days before Christmas and Abdullah had promised to look into it.
"I think the permit is good news and the Government has given the Christian community a wonderful Christmas present.
"The community will certainly be happy to know that the Government is looking into their welfare," said Dompok.
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http//thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/12/30/nation/20071230173605&sec=nation
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Its definitely true
http//www.malaysiakini.com/news/76302
The word ?Allah? can only be used in the context of Islam and not any other religion,
said Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum.Came with no suprise to me..
Malaysia is a truly Sunni sectarian country.
The sunni priest / ulama acts and enforce power similar to what Catholic Church has done in medieval europe.Everyone borned from sunni's father is automatically a sunni and fell under their juristictions.
You have to "report" to the "council of ulema" and gain their permission if you want to bail out from the sunni sect. (they call it "Islam"
And they will judge whether it is lawful or unlawful (murtaad)..Salam
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Its definitely true
http//www.malaysiakini.com/news/76302
The word ?Allah? can only be used in the context of Islam and not any other religion,
said Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum.Came with no suprise to me..
Malaysia is a truly Sunni sectarian country.
The sunni priest / ulama acts and enforce power similar to what Catholic Church has done in medieval europe.Everyone borned from sunni's father is automatically a sunni and fell under their juristictions.
You have to "report" to the "council of ulema" and gain their permission if you want to bail out from the sunni sect. (they call it "Islam"
And they will judge whether it is lawful or unlawful (murtaad)..Salam
Regarding the use of the word "Allah", the link you give adds nothing to what has already been posted and you yourself do not add anything either on the subject of the thread.
I am not going to go into the rest.
Salaam
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Regarding the use of the word "Allah", the link you give adds nothing to what has already been posted and you yourself do not add anything either on the subject of the thread.
I am not going to go into the rest.
Salaam
Okay then bro huruf I add something about this case..
The prohibition is mainly due to the Malaysia sunni sectarian govt. main concerns of "upholding the aqedah". (read fear of the widespread of christianism). Thus they ban the right of use on the word "Allah" as a reference to God to the catholics. They wanted to "uphold the aqedah" and dogma that Catholic's God and Sunni.. ergh... Islam's God is not the same.M'sia govt and their "Majlis Ulema" has also prohibited any other effort to "destroy the Aqedah", such as the "Quran alone" movement which recently has also starting to wide-spread in that country. Anyone whose known of openly spreading the "Quran-alone-ism" or "anti-hadist-ism" can be subjected to trial over heresy and suspected to be a jewish zionist agent.
http//www.islam.gov.my/portal/lihat.php?jakim=104
http//www.e-ulama.org/Berita/Default.asp?mode=0&ID=200
(In Malay)There's one anonymous m'sians guy who maintains a website spreading his heretical belief of "anti-hadist-ism" and "Quran-alone-ism".
Site http//www.e-bacaan.com/ (Malay Language)Salam
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Salam,
I am shocked by the latest move by the Malaysian Goverment,I believe the move made by the Goverment was inspired by the goverment's ulema themselves.
All sunnis in malaysia generally brought up in the Sha'fi' sect environment and they are not exposed to other version of sunnism or shiaim, let alone christians believes. Heck if you ask anybody in the street in malaysia..they dont even know that they are a sunni..Kids in school are told not to touch the bible and all other books that are not in-line with the Shafi sect will be banned by the goverment's ulema. Hence with little exposure of the outside world in the upbringing of malaysian children, the goverment believes that malaysians will get confused if the same terminology is used by Christians in their translation of the holy bible and other chiristians reading material in malay languange.
IMHO the goverment is just covering their people minds to protect their fragile minds. The root cause is the way the sunnis are brought up..not the terminology used in reading materials
2946 "....And say "We believed with what was descended on (to) us, and was descended to you, and our God, and your God (is) one, and we are to Him Moslems/submitters ."
salam
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Salam,
IMHO the goverment is just covering their people minds to protect their fragile minds. The root cause is the way the sunnis are brought up..not the terminology used in reading materials
2946 "....And say "We believed with what was descended on (to) us, and was descended to you, and our God, and your God (is) one, and we are to Him Moslems/submitters ."
salam
And what will happen if it is confirmed that Buddha indeed believed in a God he referred to as Allah?
The time may come when the rest of the world will get togather and say Allah is our God not yours hypno
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And what will happen if it is confirmed that Buddha indeed believed in a God he referred to as Allah?
The time may come when the rest of the world will get togather and say Allah is our God not yours hypno
im going far fetched here.
If Buddha indeed belived in the Books inspired by God to his prophet..then he is a muslm(somebody who submit) it does not matter what terminology he used to call upon his God.salam
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im going far fetched here.
If Buddha indeed belived in the Books inspired by God to his prophet..then he is a muslm(somebody who submit) it does not matter what terminology he used to call upon his God.salam
Salaam
The rumour is that Buddha believed in Allah and, apparently he is mentioned in Qur?an.
http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=15963.0My joke was that, since hardly any s.c. Muslims take Allah alone to be their God and Freeminders do not believe in using the name Allah and prefer ?God? so you can soon see who will take over.
Regards
farida -
Peace,
I'm not surprised at all.
I have lived in Malaysia in a state named Kelantan and it was muslim ruled and of shafii sect.
I have been married with a guy from there during 15 years and I was also many years in that sect yuck
The shafii sect is very strict and you cannot touch Quran without ablution and you cannot have pictures on the wall and on your curtains etc.
When people are so blind and are like parrots well it's not strange that they come up with silly things like this, forbid nonmuslims using the term "Allah".Once when I was younger and still married to that shafii guy, I came in contact with a woman from Eritrea on a job I have back then. I heard her talked in phone one day and she said " Assalamu Alaikum", later I asked her-are you muslim?, she said that she is christian but speak a language close to Arabic.
So, I found out that it's not only religious words but basic language they use both muslims, christians and more.
Maria