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Saturday, December 6, 2014

Sarawak church pleads for right to use ‘Allah’ throughout Malaysia

SIB Sabah president Reverend Datuk Jerry Dusing (left) and National Evangelical Christian secretary Alfred Tais outside the the Kuala Lumpur High Court in March. SIB has been waiting for a judicial review since 2007 on the seizure and return of its Bibles containing the word ‘Allah’. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, December 6, 2014.SIB Sabah president Reverend Datuk Jerry Dusing (left) and National Evangelical Christian secretary Alfred Tais outside the the Kuala Lumpur High Court in March. SIB has been waiting for a judicial review since 2007 on the seizure and return of its Bibles containing the word ‘Allah’. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, December 6, 2014.
A major Sarawak church has made an impassioned plea for the right to use the word “Allah” for worship throughout Malaysia, telling Datuk Seri Najib Razak that state Islamic prohibitions have taken away "the most important thing in our lives".
The Sarawak-based Borneo Evangelical Mission or the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) finally broke its silence over the burning issue, weeks after the Selangor Islamic authorities returned to the state churches some 300 Malay and Iban Bibles containing the word “Allah” seized in January from distributor Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM).
Most of Malaysia's 13 states disallow the word “Allah” and other Arabic words to be used by other faiths, leading to confiscation of Christian literature and materials, and even a legal suit by the Roman Catholic Church.
The SIB is affiliated and is a sister church to SIB Sabah and SIB Kuala Lumpur, which have large followings among all Malaysians. The three churches have separate governing bodies.
Wan said there were hundreds of Sarawak and Sabah Christian students attending universities and institutes of higher learning in the peninsula, saying "the majority of whom were educated completely in the Bahasa Malaysia medium, the product of the National Education Policy and with little exposure to English."
"These students would only be comfortable worshipping in Bahasa Malaysia," he said, adding that many Sarawak and Sabah Christians educated in Bahasa Malaysia have flocked to and settled in the Klang Valley and other parts of the peninsula for better prospects in life but use "Allah" in their worship, similar to their parents and ancestors.
"And naturally, they will continue to do so in Semenanjung Malaysia. Therefore, even if the prohibition were to apply only to the states in Semenanjung Malaysia and not to Sabah and Sarawak, the high mobility of people between Sabah, Sarawak and the peninsula makes observance difficult, particularly for our members.
"This will have the overall effect of harming national integration and destroying all efforts at realising the country's 1Malaysia vision," said Wan.
Wan said SIB had been established in Sarawak and Sabah since 1928 and was active in most villages in the interior and towns of the two states.
"Allah", he said, was used in almost all native languages – lban, Lun Bawang, Bidayuh, Kelabit, Kenyah, Kayan, Penan, Berawan.
The church, he said, was also largely responsible for transforming the lives of the rural and urban populace in the two states.
“As such, we strongly believe that the preservation and promotion of our right to practise our religion without the said prohibitions are good not only for our members, but also for the nation.”
SIB said it was relieved and grateful after the Selangor religious authorities returned the Alkitab and Bup Kudus seized on January 2 from the BSM to the Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS).
IT also expressed concern over the Federal Court's decision in the Catholic Herald's bid to use the word “Allah” in the weekly publication.
On June 23, the Federal Court dismissed the church's leave application to appeal the ban. Four of the seven-member bench dismissed the church's application for appeal, citing that the Court of Appeal was right in its decision to ban the word in the Herald.
SIB reiterated that the word "Allah" was an integral part of its members’ belief and urged Putrajaya “to protect our inalienable and guaranteed rights to profess and practise our faith and religion freely as agreed by the founding fathers of Malaysia and as enshrined in the Federal Constitution”.
- TMI

1 comment:

  1. The problem for Christians is that they translate ho theos/ton theon equivalent to generic nouns of (the god) or Al-ilah in Aramaic/Arabic to that of the word Allah.

    For those who try to look into the etymology of the word Allah will relate it to root ilah with tittle Al- (the) in front. However, when doing comparison of word Allah with generic nouns like ilah or Al-ilah , one will find it is not equal to those two words. For example we have titles of God like Al-awal, Al-akhir, when one wish to invoke either one as name, one drops the word Al-, by saying O Awal, or O Akhir. The same cant be applied when doing supplication towards Allah, as one will say O Allah. Not O Ilah, O Lah, nor does can one imply that such invocation is due to existence of title Al-allah. The reason is that Allah is proper/unique noun.

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