Berita NECF Newletters

Allah for All

There should be no copyright in language. Languages evolve over time as they are used to communicate and express ideas. A language is a language because speakers understand one another. Languages and words are universal property and should not be monopolized by any one religion or ethnic group.

Therefore it is surprising that the Malaysian Government, in particular the Ministry of Internal Security, imposes a ban on the use of the words “Allah”, “Baitullah”, “Kaaba” and “Solat” by non-Muslims. In Arabic countries where Muslims and Christians mingle freely, such as Egypt, these and other words which some may think originated from Islam are used freely by all. “Allah” just means God, simple as that. No one is “confused”.

But people do get confused in Malaysia, apparently. This issue is a long-standing one. It started in April 1986 when the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a letter to Christian leaders announcing the ban of 16 Bahasa words, which the Ministry felt were sensitive to Muslims. The ban was made on the basis that the words could cause confusion among Muslims and Christians. The ban was subsequently lifted from 8 of the words, but remained on the 4 mentioned earlier.

Some of us will also remember the three-week ban in April 2003 on the Bup Kudus, the Iban Bible for containing the term “Allah Taala” despite the Ibans having used the term for more than 150 years since the first missionaries arrived. It was lifted after Christian leaders met with the Prime Minister. And there were the stories of books and CDs being seized for containing the word “Allah” which affected mainly the SIB churches. Last Aug 15, three boxes of educational materials for Christian children were detained by custom officers at the LCCT in Sepang during a transit stop en route from Surabaya, Indonesia to Kota Kinabalu.

More recently, the publisher of the Catholic weekly bulletin Herald was asked to remove its Bahasa Malaysia section or risk losing its publication permit. The permit has been renewed but the Deputy Internal Security Minister insisted that the publication would still not be allowed to use the word Allah to refer to God (NST, 31-12-07).

In order to put an end to the constant harassment, SIB Sabah has filed a suit against the Internal Security Ministry and the Government. SIB is asking the court to quash the Minister’s decision not to allow the church to import four titles of Sunday materials from Indonesia as well as withholding delivery of another two titles under the Printing Presses & Publications Act 1984. It is also asking the court to compel the Minister to return the consignment of materials which it claims was “unlawfully detained”.

“These publications are meant for the religious education of our children,” SIB Sabah President Jerry Dusing said in his statement in support of the suit.
Pr Dusing contended that from the earliest days of the SIB, its Bahasa Malaysia congregations comprising mainly native bumiputras from the various tribal groups of Sabah have been using Bahasa Malaysia in their worship and religious instruction and education. They have been freely using the Al-Kitab, the Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia translation of the Holy Bible where the word ‘Allah’ appears for ‘God’.

“The Christian usage of ‘Allah’ predates Islam. ‘Allah’ is the name of God in the old Arabic Bible as well as in the modern Arabic Bible. Christians in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and other places in Asia, Africa and elsewhere where the languages are in contact with Arabic have been using the word “Allah” to refer to God,” he said.

“In Bahasa Malaysia, the word ‘Allah’ has been used continuously in the printed edition of the Matthew’s Gospel in Malay in 1629, in the first complete Malay Bible in 1733 until today in the Al-Kitab.”

The word ‘Allah’ was used in the Malay language even before 1629, according to Kairos Reseach Director Dr Ng Kam Weng. “The earliest Christian writing in Malay, Kitab salat as-sawai (Christian prayers), was printed in Arabic in 1514. Christian catechisms in Malay were published around 1545,” he said. (“Different faiths, same language”, The Sun, 31-12-07).

Even political analyst Prof. Farish A. Noor agrees. “For a start, the word ‘Allah’ predates the revelation to the Prophet Muhammad and goes way back to the pre-Islamic era. Christians had been using the word long before there were any Muslims, in fact. Furthermore the word is Arabic, and is thus common to all the peoples, cultures and societies where Arabic – in all its dialects – is spoken, and is understood by millions of Arabic speakers to mean God, and little else. One could also add that as ‘Allah’ is an Arabic word it therefore has more to do with the development and evolution of Arabic language and culture, and less to do with Islam. It is hard to understand how any religion can have a language to call its own, for languages emerge from a societal context and not a belief system.” (The Other Malaysia, 25-12-07)

Besides the issue of language, there is perhaps the more important issue of freedom of religion. The freedom of religion enshrined in Article 11 of the Federal Constitution includes the right to have access to, and the use of, scriptures and printed material in Bahasa Malaysia, our national language.

To have scriptures and publications in a language of one’s choice is fundamental human rights. Also relevant are Article 3 [the provision making Islam the religion of the federation and the guarantee that all religions may be practised in peace and harmony throughout Malaysia], Article 8 [equality before the law and non-discrimination on grounds of religion], Article 12 [rights in respect of religion] and Article 149 [legislation against subversion, acts prejudicial to public order, etc.] of the Federal Constitution. For our sake and the sake of our children, it is imperative that we defend our freedom.

 


IN January, the Internal Security Minister ordered the release of the educational books for Christian children. Meanwhile the Government, through its federal counsels, has requested for a postponement of the court hearing. They have asked for the date to be deferred to May or June, claiming that more time is needed to file its written response. This is the third journment of the SIB suit hearing. The first date, set last Dec 20, was put off to Jan 16 when the presiding judge heard that there was a possibility of an out-of-court settlement.

On the 16th however, yet another date – Jan 29 – was fixed after Judge Datuk Wan Afrah Wan Ibrahim met with SIB Church counsels Datuk D.P. Naban, Lim Heng Seng and Bobby Chew, and senior federal counsels representing the Government. The judge allowed SIB to submit its written submission, and gave one week for the Government to hand in its submission.

 



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