The Dacing BN weighting scale is moving towards the PR side after this issue on Allah is highlighted and we can expect a change of government in GE 14 with PR being a given a chance to prove their worth ....Congratulation Anwar you succeeded the battle for Putrajaya ???? masih ini ok-->>??? ...Pakatan: Bukan Islam boleh guna kalimah Allah--An appellate court’s decision that “Allah” was exclusive to Muslims suggests that Malaysians’ only recourse for civil liberties and freedom was to seek these elsewhere, The Court of Appeal’s ruling that barred the Catholic Church from describing its god with the Arabic word “Allah” in its Herald weekly paper revealed a “hopeless” situation and showed that “we have become a nation we were not”. For those who are not happy with the decision; who want to live in a free country and who value freedom, we should make plans to migrate - If cannot afford faraway places, move over to Sabah and Sarawak. They will be the last bastion and, perhaps, the last remnants of the country the people once had -In its decision, the Court of Appeal adjudged the usage of the word “Allah” as not integral to the Christian faith and said that allowing such an application would cause confusion in the Muslim community.The Catholic Church said that it would contest the Court of Appeal’s decision, pointing out that the ruling contradicts Putrajaya’s 10-point solution issued in 2011 to allow the printing, importation and distribution of the Al-Kitab, the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Christian bible, that also contained the word “Allah”. In response, Muslim group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA) told Christians to emigrate if they could not accept the sovereignty of Islam and the king in Malaysia. The appellate court decision illustrated the primacy of Islam over other religions in majority-Muslim Malaysia and that the practices of other faiths must stop if they upset some Muslims. The implications of the ruling extended beyond the Christian community that accounts for about 9 per cent of Malaysia’s 28 million people. -So, it’s not just Al-Kitab that will be affected, but the practices of the Sikhs and other faiths will also be under scrutiny. Besides Bumiputera Christians in Sabah and Sarawak, the Sikhs also call their god “Allah”. Sabah and Sarawak churches yesterday slammed the court ruling as “insensitive” and “repugnant”, and maintained that they would continue using the word “Allah” in worship and in the Al-Kitab, as they have done for centuries. Archbishop Datuk Bolly Lapok, chairman of the Association of Churches in Sarawak, said it was “utterly irresponsible” and “grossly demeaning, to say the least”, for the Court of Appeal to rule that the use of the word “Allah” was not integral to the Christian faith. Two-thirds of Christians in Malaysia are Bumiputera, who are largely based in Sabah and Sarawak and number some 1.6 million. East Malaysia is known for its cultural diversity and racial and religious tolerance. Despite his dire prognosis for the country, there was another way besides his mooted exodus of Malaysians who valued freedom and liberties. “Alternatively, we should get Zulkifli Noordin and his followers to move over to Saudi Arabia. There, the sovereignty of Islam will not be allowed to be questioned; even by Zulkifli and his followers. Datuk Zulkifli Noordin, who is Perkasa vice-president, said yesterday that with the court ruling, the Al-Kitab should no longer contain the word “Allah” and 31 other words prohibited to non-Muslims by Islamic enactments in some states. The Malay and Muslim right-wing group leader also told Borneo churches to emulate white Americans who had “changed”, after wrongly using the derogatory words “negro” and “nigger” to refer to African Americans for years. “Let this country belong to peace-loving Malaysians... Pakatan Rakyat mengekalkan pendirian mereka bahawa orang bukan Islam boleh menggunakan kalimah Allah. Pemimpin tertinggi Pakatan Rakyat yang bertemu pada Januari lalu menyokong kenyataan presiden PAS Abdul Hadi Awang bahawa Islam tidak menghalang penganut agama lain menggunakan kalimah Allah dalam amalan mereka, walaupun tidak mencapai maksud asal bahasa al-Quran. Katanya, kerajaan Umno-BN menjadikannya isu tersebut sebagai satu polemik dengan menggunakan media arus perdana, dan seterusnya menyebabkan ketegangan penduduk pelbagai agama dalam masyarakat majmuk. *A high school in Colorado stunned the nation by allowing students to recite their Pledge of Allegiance (like our Rukunegara) in Arabic. That means replacing “one nation under God” with “one nation under Allah.” The Malays and the Muslims of Malaysia continue to be steadfast, possessive and protective of the kalimah – that there is no God but Allah and that He has neither duplication nor substitute. Well, there is another hurdle to cross. The Herald can appeal the matter to the Federal court. Proponents siding the Church argue that Allah is a term that had long been used by non-Muslims the world over, citing cases in the Arab nations, Indonesia, Sabah and Sarawak. True, pick up an Arabic bible and you will see the kalimah ‘Allah’ being used where “God’ is used in English. This is because ‘Allah’ is the only word in the Arabic language meaning the same as the English word ‘God” with a capital ‘G’. Furthermore, translations into Malay (or Bahasa Indonesia) from English, had mainly relied on works by Europeans and Westerners who had, in the first place, translated into English from Hebrew or Greek or some other non-Anglican text. But to have a bible translated into Malay and using the Quranic term rather than a word already existing in the national language makes the motive to use the term ‘Allah’ by the publishers of The Herald and other non-Muslim entities a suspicious move. ( Here the word is SUSPICIOUS so by merely being suspicious does it mean that the court must act in such manner to prevent that word GOD (ALLAH being used by the Catholic) Islam is at the very core of the Malays’ existence and if they cannot honour the true and living God as Allah, then there is a vacuum in their existence,’ This, the non-Muslims cannot understand and so they continue to find ways and means to use the kalimah Allah for their benefit; their persistent quest has now become a thorn in the flesh in the relations between them and the Muslims Technically, the language doesn’t matter. The substance does. ‘Allah’ has never been a part of the non-Muslims’ struggle for human rights, liberty, women’s and children’s emancipation, education, social justice, transparency and good governance. Most of the time they use some United Nations charter to argue their case – even in this debate on the ‘Allah’ issue. And neither is Allah part of the daily rituals and practices of the non-Muslims except those who are Catholic and the Sikh ; unlike the Muslims who mention His name when they eat, sleep, begins a journey, do their household and office chores and every other task. Generally, the Malays tend to use Arabic and Quranic words when they discuss Islam because the universal teachings of the Faith are preserved in that language in the Quran. It was not the government that started the issue but the publishers of the paper and the Catholic Pastors etc... and their supporters are now arguing that that there is a political motive behind the court’s decision.’ Likewise, the court had also questioned why it is so urgent for the Catholic Church to want to use ‘Allah’ in its Malay edition of The Herald. There is no doubt non-Muslim Malaysians love their county and they are not being un-Malaysian in trying to impose their influence on everyone to use the word Allah without any religious inhibition. there are also well educated and liberal malays who also say the word Allah can be applied to all others to apply in their prayers etc....so it is not all malays or islam as a religion that is against the word Allah being used but just some who use this issue for their political mileage...which are mostly from UMNO and Perkasa ..
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 01:28:43 +0000