By Charles Santiago
Malaysia seems to have developed a mania for negative
publicity. The latest is of course the recent court ruling, banning non-Muslims
from using the word Allah.
Or that’s what I understood until some cabinet ministers
mouthed confusing statements, saying the ban is only binding on non-Muslims in
West Malaysia. Then others joined the chorus by adding it was only meant for
the Catholic publication, The Herald.
It’s certainly beyond me that the government thinks it has
the right to override the Court of Appeal’s decision. It also leaves me trying
to make sense of the government’s frantic bid to salvage what’s left of the
country’s image as the Herald, is actually meant for East Malaysians where most
of the Catholics speak and read only Malay.
These coupled with the likes of Ibrahim Ali’s misdirected
fury has enough flavour to float the first few pages and editorials of foreign
newspapers and international TV stations.
An editorial in The National, a newspaper in the United Arab
Emirates, said it’s surprised by the judgment and called the ruling “wrong”.
“The usage of the word Allah is not an integral part of the faith in
Christianity,” chief judge Mohamed Apandi Ali said in the ruling.
The Emirati article further reads – The UAE is rightly proud
of its society that allows people from all over the world to practice their
faiths openly and without discrimination. And says that if one walks into any
church in the Middle East on a Sunday, they are bound to hear the Allah in the
sermons.
An opinion piece in Gulf News states the Malaysian court
ruling ignores the fact that Jewish, Christian and Muslim Arabs use the term to
refer to God.
A newspaper in Muslim majority Pakistan questioned a
Muslim’s liberty to copyright the name of Allah.
The facts are simple – Allah is an Arabic loan-word, it
predates Islam and has been used for centuries by the Christians and Jews. It
continues to be used by the Christians and Jews in every other part of the
world, but is seen as a thorny issue only in Malaysia.
In the ruling, one can only deduce that the judges were
rather concerned about possible conversions of Muslims into Christianity, if
non-Muslims are allowed to use the word Allah.
The judge said: “It is my judgment that the possible and
most probable threat to Islam, in the context of this country, is the
propagation of other religions to the followers of Islam.”
Politically-motivated judgment
This ruling single-handedly shames my fellow Muslim sisters
and brothers as it questions their commitment to their faith.
It has further strained ties among Malaysians, questioned
minority rights and split Muslims down the middle, due to conflicting opinions.
And if the ruling is not binding on East Malaysians, then it hints that Muslims
in Sabah and Sarawak have stronger faith.
Therefore, one can conclude that the ruling is a
politically-motivated judgment. It’s a thinly veiled attempt at the play of
religion on politics and subscribes to the emerging pattern in Malaysia, where
religion is used to threaten Muslims into remaining the power base of Umno.
The judgment robs non-Muslims and particularly Christians of
their inherent right to practice their religion without the interference by the
state.
Now, we have Perkasa’s chief and self-proclaimed saviour of
the Malay Muslims demanding that the government teaches the “ungrateful
Christians” a lesson for their “ingratitude” by banning the Malay bible, the
alKitab.
Ibrahim also said Christianity is “a religion without a name
of God”. He is yet to be hauled up for sedition.
Morality police, Jakim, has urged Muslims to preach and
spread their teachings in order to prevent more groups promoting human rights
from spreading their ideology, which they deem contradicts Islamic teachings.
And the Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA) has been warning
Bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak not to be taken in by Christian evangalists.
Fanning religious and racial sentiments such as these will
cause chaos and unrest. There is a strong basis to this observation.
The only person who does not seem to be observing what’s
happening in the country is Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
But Mr Prime Minister, don’t you think it’s about time you
gave the rakyat your two cents worth on the ongoing Allah issue?
Charles Santiago is DAP’s MP for Klang
(di petik dari free Malaysia today)
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