A row over a word.
For most of you who don’t know, the hottest issue in Malaysia right now is not the cost of petrol BUT a fight over who owns the right to use the word “Allah” exclusively. In the Malay language, “Allah” means God and many non-English speaking Christians use this word in hymns, songs and so forth. This is especially common among aboriginal Christians who worship in Malay – the national language in Malaysia – AND among East Malaysians.
In a nutshell, Muslims are saying that the word “Allah” should only be used in the Islamic context whereas Malay-speaking Catholics and Christians are saying that it should be free to be used by all (like in the Catholic weekly The Herald).
While everyone is busy squabbling over the exclusive rights to the word, a church got burnt down in the process and someone like me who hasn’t been really following the drama begins to wonder…
Is a religion tied exclusively to a language? Do all Catholics speak Latin? Do all Muslims speak Arabic? Since when did speaking a certain language meant that you were part of a religion as well? More importantly, since when did God belong to one religion? I always thought that we belonged to him and not vice versa.
I guess in Malaysia where we tied the ethnicity with the religion, I supposed people would automatically think that Malays who are deemed to be all Muslims have the exclusive right to use Malay in their worship of God. BUT they fail to realize that a language and ultimately a word can never be exclusive as people of all walks of life can learn a language and utilize it. Is it fair to say that I’m French because I speak French OR that I’m Malay because I speak Malay? Subsequently, if I spoke Latin, would you say that I’m Catholic?
The word “Allah” is just another word in a different language used to describe God, just as how the French use “Dieu”. I find it shocking yet ignorant for some Malay groups to demand exclusive right to the word “Allah”. For a people who profess to be practitioners of a peaceful faith, I find them to be very intolerant.
What’s worse is that some groups feel that it’s necessary to terrorize and scare others into dropping the use of the word “Allah”. Are they any better than the 9/11 terrorists? Hardly. Scare tactics like leaving a cow’s head at a temple doorstep or burning down/bombing churches (even my church got hit by this issue) only makes Muslims look bad and the people of their faith who don’t say anything against it are no better than their bomb-totting peers.
And you wonder why many European governments are having a hard time with extreme Muslim immigrants who want everything done according to their way and rules.
*sigh*
I hope such behaviour doesn’t spread like mesothelioma or any other cancer – it would be such a shame. So much for hoping for a positive start of the year. Bah.















