Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Articles
Source & Credit: The Review of Religions | Editorial
By Sarah Waseem | March 2010
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (Exodus, 20:7)
And revile not those whom they call upon beside Allah, lest they out of spite, revile Allah in their ignorance. (Holy Qur’an, Ch.6:V.109)
Who owns the name of God? A seemingly banal question perhaps, but not so in Malaysia where three years ago the government banned the Catholic Church using the Arabic word Allah as a translation for God in its Malay-language newspaper. That ban was then overturned by a High Court ruling that upheld the constitutional right of the church’s weekly Herald newspaper to refer to Jesus Christ(as) as the son of Allah.
The verdict has angered Muslim groups who fear that some Muslims could be misled by Christians using the word Allah. They say the word should be reserved for Islam alone. However, according to Reverend Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, there is no other appropriate term for ‘God’ in Malay. As we go to print a Malaysian court has just suspended that ruling in favour of the government ban on the use of the word Allah after the government argued the decision could cause racial conflict.
The Catholic Herald argues that the word Allah has been used by Malay-speaking Christians for centuries, after the concept of a single deity was introduced by Arabic-speaking traders. The newspaper has a circulation of about 14,000 and is available only in Catholic churches, although some Muslims have complained that it is possible to look up Malay-language material using the term Allah on the Herald’s Web. The National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students contends that:
‘…the word Allah is exclusive and only refers to the concept of God that is understood by Muslims…’
and have warned that allowing the Herald to use Allah could cause confusion among Muslims who may leave their faith.
(http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/world/80405892.html).
Government lawyers have argued that Allah denotes the Muslim God, is accepted as such around the world, and is exclusively for Muslims. If Catholics were allowed to use Allah, then they argue Muslims would be “confused.” The confusion would worsen because while Christians recognise a “trinity of gods” Islam is “totally monotheistic.” They contend that the proper word for God in the Malay language is Tuhan, not Allah.
According to Malay-language Utusan Malaysia, the mufti of northern Perak state, Harussani Zakaria, termed the verdict “an insult to Muslims in this country.” The state news agency, Bernama, reported former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as saying that the authorities should set strict conditions for non-Muslims using the word Allah to avoid provoking a Muslim backlash:
“What I am afraid of is that the term ‘Allah’ might be used in such a way that could inflame the anger of Muslims, if [non-Muslims] were to use it on banners or write something that might not reflect Islam.”
Sadly, this prediction has come to pass with attacks on ten churches to date, most of them having been fire bombed.
It is true that the word ‘Allah’ means the one and only true God, but despite the pre-islamic Arabian idol worshippers’ belief in more than 300 Gods, they believed in an entity above all of them called ‘Allah’. Yet the Holy Prophet(saw) never forbade the idol worshippers to use the word ‘Allah’.
Who owns the name of God? A seemingly banal question perhaps, but not so in Malaysia where three years ago the government banned the Catholic Church using the Arabic word Allah as a translation for God in its Malay-language newspaper. That ban was then overturned by a High Court ruling that upheld the constitutional right of the church’s weekly Herald newspaper to refer to Jesus Christ(as) as the son of Allah.
The verdict has angered Muslim groups who fear that some Muslims could be misled by Christians using the word Allah. They say the word should be reserved for Islam alone. However, according to Reverend Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, there is no other appropriate term for ‘God’ in Malay. As we go to print a Malaysian court has just suspended that ruling in favour of the government ban on the use of the word Allah after the government argued the decision could cause racial conflict.
The Catholic Herald argues that the word Allah has been used by Malay-speaking Christians for centuries, after the concept of a single deity was introduced by Arabic-speaking traders. The newspaper has a circulation of about 14,000 and is available only in Catholic churches, although some Muslims have complained that it is possible to look up Malay-language material using the term Allah on the Herald’s Web. The National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students contends that:
‘…the word Allah is exclusive and only refers to the concept of God that is understood by Muslims…’
and have warned that allowing the Herald to use Allah could cause confusion among Muslims who may leave their faith.
(http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/world/80405892.html).
Government lawyers have argued that Allah denotes the Muslim God, is accepted as such around the world, and is exclusively for Muslims. If Catholics were allowed to use Allah, then they argue Muslims would be “confused.” The confusion would worsen because while Christians recognise a “trinity of gods” Islam is “totally monotheistic.” They contend that the proper word for God in the Malay language is Tuhan, not Allah.
According to Malay-language Utusan Malaysia, the mufti of northern Perak state, Harussani Zakaria, termed the verdict “an insult to Muslims in this country.” The state news agency, Bernama, reported former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as saying that the authorities should set strict conditions for non-Muslims using the word Allah to avoid provoking a Muslim backlash:
“What I am afraid of is that the term ‘Allah’ might be used in such a way that could inflame the anger of Muslims, if [non-Muslims] were to use it on banners or write something that might not reflect Islam.”
Sadly, this prediction has come to pass with attacks on ten churches to date, most of them having been fire bombed.
It is true that the word ‘Allah’ means the one and only true God, but despite the pre-islamic Arabian idol worshippers’ belief in more than 300 Gods, they believed in an entity above all of them called ‘Allah’. Yet the Holy Prophet(saw) never forbade the idol worshippers to use the word ‘Allah’.
[...more]
Read the complete article here: Editorial, The Teview of Religions, March 2010
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