Condemn the Church attacks

Below is my views on the latest attacks on CHurches, first posted in lmy other blog and I have decided to post it here, since this is about religion and not politics, and politicians should not politicise the issue of religion:

I strongly condemn those who resort to attacking churches, in the wake of the ‘controversy’ in the use of ‘Allah”‘

I would like to remind the people that under Malaysian Federal Constitution Article 3 (1), Islam is the religion of the Federation,  but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.

To resort to attack churches in the wake of the High Court decision is deplorable and is a wanton attack on the freedom of practice of religions which we should all treasure and protect in this multiracial society of ours. The perpetrators must be arrested and charged.

I hope both our Muslim and Christian brothers should remain calm and do not let their emotions overtake their common sense.

I hope politicians would refrain from fanning emotions and instead they should try their best to cool the temperature down and let judicial process run its course, as an appeal against the High Court decision is pending.

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Also an article from the Islamic Society of North America:

ISNA Commends Malaysian Court Ruling that Affirms Religious Freedom of Christians

(Plainfield, IN – January 4, 2010) The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) commends the landmark ruling by a Malaysian Court on December 31, 2009, that affirms the religious freedom of Malaysian Christians. The ruling asserts that Christians have the right to use the word “Allah” to translate “God” into Bahasa Melayu, the Malaysian language. It strikes down a government ban that was placed in 2007 on the use of the term in Christian literature.

The opponents of the use of the word Allah in reference to God have argued that the term “God” is usually translated by Malaysians who follow faiths other than Islam as “Tuhan” in Bahasa Melayu, not “Allah.” They insist that “Allah” should only be used to refer to God in Islam. This argument is contrary to both Islamic understanding and practice.

The Qur’an is quite explicit that Muslims worship the same God recognized by Christians. The Qur’an commands Muslims to declare that the God they worship and the one worshiped by the followers of revealed books, including Christians, is one:  “… and say: We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One, and to Him do we submit.” (Qur’an 29:46)

With regards to actual and historical practices, Christian Arabs have been using the word “Allah” to refer to God in their religious sources since the inception of Islam, and have never been challenged by private Muslims or Muslim governments on this ground. Islamic law is clear that followers of the Christian faith have the right to practice their religion according to their own religious teachings.

Malaysia has long been a good example of Islamic tolerance and we call on the Malaysian government to maintain the tradition of tolerance and uphold the religious freedom of Christians and to let the court ruling stand. We also urge Muslim NGOs to respect Islamic teachings and long-held Islamic traditions, and to withdraw their opposition to the use of the word “Allah” by their Christian compatriots..

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Below is posted in Wall Street Journal:

The politics of ‘Allah”

God means love in many places, but in Malaysia it can also mean politics. That’s the takeaway from the United Malays National Organization-led government’s attempt to quash the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslim groups.

At issue is the Catholic Herald’s two-year court battle to use the A-word in its Malay-language edition—which it claims it needs to do because there’s no other suitable word for “God” in Malay. Last week, the High Court overturned an arbitrary government ban. Yesterday, however, the church agreed to a stay of the decision—at the government’s request—until the ruling can be appealed. So the Herald is once again muzzled.

Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail characterized the decision as “a matter of national interest,” which implies that somehow Muslims across Malaysia would revolt if the Herald were allowed to reference God in another language. Never mind that Malaysians of many faiths have peacefully co-existed for decades.

read more here