Catholic Bishop Paul Tan expressed puzzlement over the apparent flip-flop by PAS over the right of non-Muslims to use the term ‘Allah’ in the rituals of worship and in faith education.
“This is nothing like the consistent line the public ought reasonably to expect from a political party that claims to be for all Malaysians,” said the head of the Catholic Church in the Melaka-Johor diocese.
The prelate was referring to the statement issued by the party’s Syura Council late Sunday that the term ‘Allah’ should not be used in the religious texts of non-Muslims because its original meaning cannot be rendered to mean anything other than that accorded it by the Quran.
“If the word has a meaning exclusive to Quranic percepts about God, how come, then, Christian Arabs and Indonesians have been using the term for centuries in prayer and in discourse to mean the one God?” asked Bishop Tan.
“Logically speaking, the Prophet of Islam would have found a new term for God if it was intended to disassociate the Muslim conception of God from the Christian conception of him as the God of Abraham,” commented the Jesuit-trained prelate.
Bishop Tan said he found the latest stance of PAS on the issue as “painfully puzzling” because it is the second reversal of a stance first adopted three years ago, under the auspices of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, that the ‘Allah’ term for God was not exclusive to Muslims.
Sudden reversal
The first reversal was signposted last month by the party’s information chief, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, who publicly remonstrated with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who in a Christmas Day message, had called on the federal government to allow Christians in Borneo, who mostly converse in Bahasa Malaysia, to use the term in worship and in faith education.
“This is nothing like the consistent line the public ought reasonably to expect from a political party that claims to be for all Malaysians,” said the head of the Catholic Church in the Melaka-Johor diocese.
The prelate was referring to the statement issued by the party’s Syura Council late Sunday that the term ‘Allah’ should not be used in the religious texts of non-Muslims because its original meaning cannot be rendered to mean anything other than that accorded it by the Quran.“If the word has a meaning exclusive to Quranic percepts about God, how come, then, Christian Arabs and Indonesians have been using the term for centuries in prayer and in discourse to mean the one God?” asked Bishop Tan.
“Logically speaking, the Prophet of Islam would have found a new term for God if it was intended to disassociate the Muslim conception of God from the Christian conception of him as the God of Abraham,” commented the Jesuit-trained prelate.
Bishop Tan said he found the latest stance of PAS on the issue as “painfully puzzling” because it is the second reversal of a stance first adopted three years ago, under the auspices of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, that the ‘Allah’ term for God was not exclusive to Muslims.
Sudden reversal
The first reversal was signposted last month by the party’s information chief, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, who publicly remonstrated with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who in a Christmas Day message, had called on the federal government to allow Christians in Borneo, who mostly converse in Bahasa Malaysia, to use the term in worship and in faith education.
Last week, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, following a meeting of the central leadership council of Pakatan,restored the Islamic party’s position to the status quo ante: he said the term was not exclusive to Muslims.Abdul Hadi’s reiteration of the PAS-cum-Pakatan position is now countermanded by the 15-member Syura Council, PAS’ highest decision-making body on policy matters, which last Sunday pronounced the ‘Allah’ term exclusive to Muslims.
“I don’t know if this is their final word on it,” said Bishop Tan, “but if it is that slogan of theirs - ‘PAS for all’ - is looking very sorry indeed.”
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