Is The Church Playing Politics?

Hantu Laut

This is a sensitive subject among Muslims and Christians.

As always it is the Abrahamic religions that caused turmoils and segregation of the human race more than any other religion, be it Islam, Christianity or Judaism, they all shared a harrowing and brutal past. They still could not see eye to eye and bent on destroying each other.

All three religions came from the same root and shared many of the same prophets, but the mistrust, distrust and hostility among the theocrats, the hypocrites and among the pretenders of religious piety had been the mother of many holy wars, religious violence, genocides and pogroms. 

The Nazi's Holocaust and the Russian pogroms of the Jews in Europe stemmed out of ethnic and religious prejudice and bigotry are well documented in the history books, which, unfortunately, had not been made into textbooks in schools to teach the younger generations not to make the same mistakes as their forefathers. 

I am going to express my opinion on the issue and controversy of using the word "Allah" as conscientious as possible, without pride and prejudice. 

Though I am a Muslim I do believe the word Allah is not strictly confined to Muslims, as in the Arab worlds, the Arab Christians also used Allah to refer to their God, but that's where it ends. 

Why would the Christians in Malaysia be adamant in using the word Allah as their God, they are not Arab Christians.

In Sabah, as far as I can remember for yonks the Malay speaking Christian Kadazans and Dusuns have been using "Tuhan" to refer to their God. Even we Muslims, except the pretenders and hypocrites, occasionally, used the word "Tuhan" to refer to "Allah" in our daily conversation. As I speak English at home with my family, I tend use the word "God" more often than Allah. Would that makes me less Muslim and a sinner? It is the intention that matters, the word is just another proper noun.

In Judaism, the Hebrew word for God is "Yahweh" used in the Bible, but hardly spoken as the Jews think it is too sacred to be flogged around. Just as much as the Muslims revered the Koran as a sacred book and view any desecration of the Koran as unforgivable grave mortal sin, likewise, the Jews believe Yahweh should only stay in the Scripture.  

Allah is synonymous name for the "Almighty", why fret so much over which one you should use? Would you be less Christian if you use Tuhan, or less Muslim if you use God?

The word "Allah" came into widespread use in Malaysia when the Christian church started importing Bibles from Indonesia for the Malay speaking Christians. 

Christianity is a minority religion in Indonesia and the faithful are Malay speaking, hence, the Dutch had to introduce Bibles in the Malay language for the Christian converts. The Old and New Testaments were translated into Malay by two Dutchman named Melchior Leiddekker and Peter Vander Vorm. There have been many other earlier partial translations by other authors, but the complete works were done by the two.

As you can well judge it is not the Christians in the streets that are making all the noises, most are quite happy with "God" for the English speaking and "Tuhan" for the Malay speaking. Some Christians, particularly the English speaking ones find it repulsive to use "Allah" as their God, but no one wants to speak out as the Church had gone to the fore to challenge the government on its usage. 

It is the problem with all religions, once you challenge a religious edict, no matter, for good or for bad, you would be ostracised. In Islam you would immediately be branded a murtad, an apostate. Christianity, viewed apostasy in slighly different light today, as compared to 500-600 years ago.

It is the religious and political leaders from both sides of the two faiths that have caused this perturbing issue by turning it into a national dispute and politicians jumping on the bandwagon using it for political mileage and expediency. 

As I see it, both sides are politicising the issue at the expense of the people.It was never a major issue before and I don't quite understand why is the Church adamant on its usage in the Bible. 

In my family we have Christians, Buddish and non-believer relatives through inter-marriages and religions had never been an issue.There is great mutual respect for each other religion and we don't even talk about it when we meet at gatherings.  

Would the Christian God be less divine if it is called "Tuhan"? I don't know. Maybe, my good Catholic priest friend should tell me.

Somebody, told me the other day it is about freedom of religion and freedom of worship, which got me a little confused. 

Malaysia did not ban Christianity or any other religion as you can see from the number of churches and temples in the country and its congregations. If anything to go by it should be Muslims, who should be angry with the government as the government has banned Shiaism, which is considered one of the branches of mainstream Islam and nip in the bud deviant sects that mushroomed from time to time, which have saved this country from act of terrorism by religious extremists.

There should be sense and sensibility on this issue, the argument that if the Arabs used it for both religions, we must follow suit, is really not holding water.

Here, the Church is questioning the Sultan of Selangor decree on the use of Allah in his state. 

Here, the Protestant Church says it will, in spite of the ban, continue the use of Allah in the Malay language Bible as they have been using it for centuries.