KUALA LUMPUR,― Muslims should not feel hurt by Lim Guan Eng’s call for the federal government to allow the use of “Allah” in Malay-language bibles, DAP chairman Karpal Singh said today, pointing out that apart from Christians, many other non-Muslims in the country use the word.
Karpal explained that the word “Allah” appears 37 times in the Sikh bible, and is also used by the Orang Aslis and the Babas in Malacca.
“The word ‘Allah’ also appears in the Bengali language,” the Bukit Gelugor MP said in a statement here.
On Monday, Lim raised the controversial “Allah” issue in his Christmas message, triggering uproar when he urged the federal government to allow the use of the word “Allah” in the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Christian Bible.
He pointed out that this has been allowed in Sabah and Sarawak for the last 50 years and practised in the Middle East for more than a thousand years.
But DAP’s partner PAS leapt into the fray immediately to dispute Lim’s call, insisting that Christians should not use it in the Alkitab as it does not reflect the actual meaning of “God” in the original text.
PAS also said that using the word “Allah” in the Alkitab, the Malay-language Bible catering to the Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Bumiputera Christians, will confuse both Christians and Muslims.
Karpal refuted this in his statement today, saying that Lim’s remarks should be taken in its proper perspective.
He reasoned that Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general, had merely meant to say that the word “Allah” should be confined to Christians in Sabah and Sarawak where the word has been consistently used in churches without any objection from anyone.
“What the chief minister said in his Christmas message should not hurt the feelings of Muslims. Nothing sinister should be read into what the chief minister said. The chief minister did not intend to hurt anyone’s feelings.
“The demand by Negeri Sembilan state executive councillor, Datuk Hasim Rusdi, that Lim Guan Eng should make a public apology does not arise,” Karpal said.
Christians form 9.2 per cent of Malaysia’s 28.3 million-strong population, with many of them in east Malaysia using the Malay language and the word “Allah” to refer to their God.
In recent years, the Christian and Muslim religious communities have been engaged in a tug-of-war over the word “Allah”, with the latter group arguing that its use should be exclusive to them on the grounds that Islam is monotheistic and the word “Allah” denotes the Muslim god.
A legal tussle over the use of the word “Allah” remains unresolved, with the Catholic Church still barred from publishing the word in its weekly newspaper, despite winning a High Court decision on December 31, 2009.
This is due to the Home Ministry filing an appeal in January 2010 against the High Court’s decision, which has since stagnated in the courts as no date has been set for its hearing.
Last year, shipments of the Alkitab were blocked or confiscated at ports, before the government finally bowed to pressure and released them.
-themalaysianinsider.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.