Playing God, the Umno way?

MP SPEAKS Malaysia seems to have developed a mania for negative publicity.

The latest is of course the Oct 14 Court of Appeal ruling banning non-Muslims from using the word ‘Allah’.

Or that’s what I understood until some cabinet ministers mouthed confusing statements, saying the ban is only binding on non-Muslims in the peninsula.

Then others joined the chorus by adding it was only meant for the Malay edition of Catholic publication The Herald.

It’s certainly beyond me that the government thinks it has the right to override the decision.

It also leaves me trying to make sense of the government’s frantic bid to salvage what’s left of the country’s image as The Herald is actually meant for Sabah and Sarawak where most of the Catholics speak and read only Malay.

All this, coupled with the likes of Ibrahim Ali’s misdirected fury, has had enough flavour to float the first few pages and editorials of foreign newspapers and international TV stations.

An editorial in The National, a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, expressed surprise with judgment and called the ruling “wrong”.

‘The UAE is rightly proud of its society that allows people from all over the world to practise their faiths openly and without discrimination. And says that if one walks into any church in the Middle East on a Sunday, they are bound to hear the word ‘Allah’ in the sermons,’ it reads.

An opinion piece in Gulf News states that the Malaysian court ruling ignores the fact that Jewish, Christian and Muslim Arabs use the term to refer to God.

A newspaper in Muslim-majority Pakistan questioned a Muslim's liberty to copyright the name of ‘Allah’.

The facts are simple - Allah is an Arabic loan-word, it predates Islam and has been used for centuries by Christians and Jews. It continues to be used by Christians and Jews in every other part of the world, but is seen as a thorny issue only in Malaysia.

In the ruling, one can only deduce that the judges were rather concerned about possible conversions of Muslims to Christianity, if non-Muslims are allowed to use the word ‘Allah’.

"The use of the word ‘Allah’ is not an integral part of the faith in Christianity," Justice Mohamed Apandi Ali said in his written judgment.

" ... It is my judgment that the possible and most probable threat to Islam, in the context of this country, is the propagation of other religions to the followers of Islam."

Silent Najib

This ruling single-handedly shames my Muslim sisters and brothers as it questions their commitment to their faith.

It has further strained ties among Malaysians, questioned minority rights and split Muslims down the middle, due to conflicting opinions. And if the ruling is not binding on those in Sabah and Sarawak, then it hints that Muslims in the two states have stronger faith.

Therefore, one can conclude that the ruling is a politically-motivated judgment. It is a thinly veiled attempt at the play of religion on politics and subscribes to the emerging pattern in Malaysia, where religion is used to threaten Muslims into remaining Umno's power base.

The judgment robs non-Muslims and particularly Christians of their inherent right to practise their religion without interference by the state.

Now, we have Ibrahim, Perkasa’s chief and self-proclaimed saviour of Malay Muslims, demanding that the government teaches the “ungrateful Christians” a lesson for their “ingratitude” by banning the Malay-language Bible, the AlKitab.

Ibrahim also mocked Christianity as “a religion without a name of God”. He is yet to be hauled up for sedition.

Jakim, the morality police, has urged Muslims to preach and spread their teachings in order to prevent more groups promoting human rights from spreading their ideology, which they deem contradicts Islamic teachings.

And the Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia has been warning bmiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak not to be taken in by Christian evangalists.
Fanning religious and racial sentiments will cause chaos and unrest. There is a strong basis to this observation.

The only person who does not seem to be observing what is happening in the country is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Mr Prime Minister, don't you think it's about time you gave the rakyat your two cents worth on the ‘Allah’ issue?

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CHARLES SANTIAGO is the DAP’s member of parliament for Klang.