Church activists launch signature drive for 'Allah' term

Joe Fernandez |
Sabah church activists led by Dr Jeffrey Kitingan have launched a signature campaign to persuade the federal government to rescind the ban on the use of the term Allah by Christians in prayer, song, worship and in print.

Allah has 98 other names but so far neither the Home Ministry nor the church has made this an issue.

“The campaign will run until March 29 and anyone, irrespective of faith, can sign in support of the campaign,” Jeffrey at a packed press conference yesterday at Sokid Villa, his residence in Kota Kinabalu. “Besides the hard copy, the signature campaign is also available online at www.PetitionOnline.com/sabahan/petition.html”

“We will submit a memorandum together with all the signatures, at the end of the campaign, to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Putra Jaya.”

He also wants Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar to clarify his warning in recent days that those (Christians) using Allah in print would be cited under the Internal Security Act and not the Press, Printing and Publications Act.

Jeffrey, a younger brother of Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan, is also a national vice-president of PKR (Pakatan Keadilan Rakyat) and chairperson of the recently launched Borneo Heritage Foundation.

Co-organiser Ronnie Klassen, a businessman, expressed confidence that the online version of the signature campaign will attract support from the Vatican and the international community for “an issue that is very dear to all Christians as it is to members of the two other Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Islam”.

“The flip-flop on Allah by the Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar is tantamount to telling Christian Malaysians that they have no voice and no place in the mainstream,” said Klassen. “We feel hurt, insulted and ridiculed by a government that only believes in its righteousness.”

Drafted by lawyers

The memorandum which will accompany the signatures collected during the campaign, both hard copy and online, is expected to focus on the Home Ministry’s fears that “Muslims will be confused if Christians too use the term Allah for God”, according Klassen. It will be drafted by lawyers so that “it doesn’t run foul of any laws”.

Essentially, the memorandum will present strong historical evidence which will defeat the Malaysian Government’s arguments against Christians using the term Allah. The history of the subject apparently shows that Allah was the chief of the pagan deities before the Abrahamic faiths.

There have been suggestions from officials that while Muslims and Christians worship one God, it is not the same God and besides “Islam does not have the concept of the God of the Trinity i.e. three-in-one ... God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”. There have also been suggestions that Allah was in fact only used by Christians in the Middle East after they converted from Islam.

Supporters of the signature campaign are taken aback by “the appalling ignorance of the home minister on the issue” but expressed gratitude that the Muslim community has by and large remained silent so far on the issue. “Even if they don’t support us on this matter, at least they are not opposed,” said a Perakian who signed the hard copy of the campaign. “The mainstream Malay media does not have that much support from the Muslim community on the issue against the church.”

Another supporter, a university tutor from Kuala Lumpur who gave his name simply as Chen, confided that he personally “wouldn’t use the word Allah in church since it would stick in my throat”.

“When I was in mission school, I never heard any Christian mentioning Allah. But then, there was no reason to do that since we either prayed in Latin in those days or English. In Latin, God was Pater Nosta which means Our Father,” said Chen who admitted that he now keeps a good distance from the church and any religion. “In English too, God was either God or Our Father or God our Father.”

“Many Roman Catholics during my schooldays prayed either to Mary, Jesus or the saints, not God himself. Perhaps it is still the same.”

“The issue of Allah has only arisen because of the Malay language and the other native languages and dialects.”

Variations of Allah

Arine, a housewife from Sarawak who supports the campaign, wonders whether Allahtalla – the Bidayuh term for God - is banned as well.

Variations of Allah in other languages, according to Wikipedia, include Ala, Anla (Chinese); Allach (Greek); Allah (Hebrew and Hindi); Ara, Arra, Arrafu (Japanese); Alla (Maltese and Korean); Annax, Allakh (Serbian, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian); Alah, Anax (Serbian, Belarusian and Macedonian).

One Sarawak Muslim, Awang Hussein, who begs to differ blames the home minister for “creating a problem from a non-issue”.

“Since that journal - the Herald – is in Bahasa (Malay), it should stick to using the Bahasa word for God which is Tuhan. Why Allah? Unless they want to deliberately confuse people or want to play politics. I believe that they are trying to do both,” said Hussein. “Allowing them to use Allah in the first place is Syed Hamid’s biggest mistake his entire political career. He alone decided on it. He was not man enough to admit it but put the blame on his ministry staff.”

Hussein doesn’t believe that the word Allah pre-dated Islam, as pointed out by Christians, and believes “the claim is totally unsubstantiated and mere hearsay”.

Christian use of the term Allah for God is a matter in court but many members of the faith fear the case may not come up at all or the verdict may be against them without a written judgment which may be left hanging without a deadline.

Malays, as defined by the federal constitution, are not allowed by law to profess any other religion besides Islam. The Home Ministry ostensibly fears that since the al-Quran is almost wholly a re-affirmation of the Old Testament and the Bible, Muslims may “become confused and weakened in their faith” if Christians use the word Allah for God when praying, preaching, writing or speaking in the Malay language even if among themselves. Christian and other non-Muslim groups charge that “not enough credit is being given to the Malays for their intelligence”.

Malays must also not be seen as “going against Islam”, and this factor alone has often sorely tested the faith of practicing Muslim members of the Judiciary in the past on matters involving faith and sowed widespread public dissatisfaction over court rulings especially on matters that brought the syariah (path of God or Islamic law) into conflict with civil law, secularism and the Federal Constitution.
Sources ;
1. http://malaysiakini.com/news/99601
2. http://www.sapp.org.my/mkini/090305_church.htm