Cahaya’s Rants

Malaysian leaders in all their infinite wisdom have banned the use of the term ‘Allah’ by non Muslims, especially in publications.  The reason for the ban is the term ‘Allah’ is exclusively for use by Muslims and Islam.

In Malaysia, Muslims are easily confused.  If Christians in their Malaysia language publication use the term ‘Allah’ to refer to Almighty God, they are deemed to have an agenda.  An nefarious agenda to confuse the minds of Muslims whereby the term ‘Allah’ is used to make them leave Islam and follow the Allah of the Catholics.

It does not matter at all to the Malaysian leaders that the word Allah has been existence in the Middle-East long before the advent of Islam.  It does not matter to the Malaysian leaders that the word Allah has its roots in the Aramaic word ‘alaha’.  It does not matter to the Malaysian leaders that even Sikhs use the term Allah in their holy Sciptures to refer to a supreme diety.  It does not matter to the Malaysian leaders that elsewhere in the world, especially in the Middle East, the word Allah is used by religions other than Islam, and does not cause any confusion or controversy.

It wasn’t too long ago that the Malaysian government banned the Iban language Bible (an ethnic race and language in Malaysia) for its use of Allah and other words that are similarly found in the Quran.  That ban was reversed and one wonders if the government will eventually ban the Iban language again for its use of Allah.

I am not opposed to Christians using another word other than Allah when referring to Almighty God, but I do not want Christians and other faiths to lose this debate just because the government says so.  The government has no business telling Catholics and other faiths that the word Allah is solely Islam’s.  If they think that Muslims in Malaysia might be confused, then whoever is charge of their religious teachings should explain and teach them that Islam does not have a monopoly where the word Allah is concerned.

It is hard to imagine that in the 21st century the Malaysian government cares more about whether or not the word Allah used by non Muslims is going to cause confusion when the focus should be the future of Malaysia’s  economic competitiveness in the S.E. Asian region, and that Malaysia be seen as a model of democracy and multi-culturalism.

The Muslim leaders in the Malaysian government are the ones doing the confusing.  Confusing the rest of the non-Muslim population as to the objective and motivation of this ban in the first place.