Christians dismayed by uproar over ‘Allah’ usage
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — Hotelier Joe Jeofry, like thousands of Christian East Malaysians who worship in Bahasa Malaysia, is dismayed over attempts to restrict their use of ‘Allah’ despite the recent High Court ruling allowing them to do so.
The Dec 31 High Court ruling reversed a Home Ministry ban on the use of Allah for Catholic newspaper Herald in its Bahasa Malaysia edition.
The hardliners in Umno and PAS have objected to the judgment and have urged the ministry to appeal.
“The restriction is oppressive.” said the father of four who pointed out that it goes against the grain of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1 Malaysia.
The 45-year-old from Papar, Sabah, who attends Mass at St Anthony Church in Pudu, told The Malaysian Insider that he has been using Allah to mean Lord as long as he can remember while East Malaysians had been using the term for hundreds of years.
Jeofry said when he read law, he was taught about the supremacy of the constitution and the freedom of religion which is suppose to exist in Malaysia but lamented that in reality these were not followed here.
“We just want to be left alone to worship as we always have. We acknowledged that Islam is the main religion of the country and it’s not our intention to disrupt this.”
Sarawakian Rosa Lungan expressed the same concerns.
The 43-year-old kindergarten teacher said she was brought up reading the Bible in Bahasa which used Allah and there had never been any problems till now.
“God is greater than this situation and I am praying for this problem to be resolved.”
Also in St Anthony today was Don, a Christian Indonesian contract worker who aptly pointed out that the mix of politics and religion was the main cause behind the attempted ban of the use of Allah for Christians.
“Politicians should not get involved with religion.” he said adding that in Indonesia there was no problem with Christians using Allah.
They were among the some 700 East Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipinos and locals celebrating Sunday Mass as they usually do at noon in Bahasa Malaysia at St Anthony’s.
No reference was made to Thursday’s ruling.
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — Hotelier Joe Jeofry, like thousands of Christian East Malaysians who worship in Bahasa Malaysia, is dismayed over attempts to restrict their use of ‘Allah’ despite the recent High Court ruling allowing them to do so.
The Dec 31 High Court ruling reversed a Home Ministry ban on the use of Allah for Catholic newspaper Herald in its Bahasa Malaysia edition.
The hardliners in Umno and PAS have objected to the judgment and have urged the ministry to appeal.
“The restriction is oppressive.” said the father of four who pointed out that it goes against the grain of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1 Malaysia.
The 45-year-old from Papar, Sabah, who attends Mass at St Anthony Church in Pudu, told The Malaysian Insider that he has been using Allah to mean Lord as long as he can remember while East Malaysians had been using the term for hundreds of years.
Jeofry said when he read law, he was taught about the supremacy of the constitution and the freedom of religion which is suppose to exist in Malaysia but lamented that in reality these were not followed here.
“We just want to be left alone to worship as we always have. We acknowledged that Islam is the main religion of the country and it’s not our intention to disrupt this.”
Sarawakian Rosa Lungan expressed the same concerns.
The 43-year-old kindergarten teacher said she was brought up reading the Bible in Bahasa which used Allah and there had never been any problems till now.
“God is greater than this situation and I am praying for this problem to be resolved.”
Also in St Anthony today was Don, a Christian Indonesian contract worker who aptly pointed out that the mix of politics and religion was the main cause behind the attempted ban of the use of Allah for Christians.
“Politicians should not get involved with religion.” he said adding that in Indonesia there was no problem with Christians using Allah.
They were among the some 700 East Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipinos and locals celebrating Sunday Mass as they usually do at noon in Bahasa Malaysia at St Anthony’s.
No reference was made to Thursday’s ruling.
03/01/10
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