KUALA LUMPUR - The latest survey by the Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Elections or Umcedel shows that 77% of the Malays in the country want the word ‘Allah’ to be kept exclusive to Muslims.
The same number of Malay respondents also said the term should not be used by Christians in Sabah and Sarawak either.
“It is obvious that the issue is still sensitive for the Malays, so political parties must be careful,” Umcedel director Redzuan Othman told a press conference on Tuesday.
Political fodder turns into dynamite!
His words are unlikely to provide much comfort to Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has been blamed for fanning the issue and reawakening deep-seated feelings about the word amongst both the Malays as well as Christians throughout the country.
"The Allah case is a good lesson to Najib and Umno never to use religion to make themselves politically popular. Now they have awoken the monster in the Malays so to speak. They will have to deal with it. I cannot see Christians in Sabah, Sarawak or any part of the country willing to relinquish their right to use their word either," MP for Batu Tian Chua toldMalaysia Chronicle.
"Worse still, this issue has gone international. It's not just the U.S., the Vatican watching to see what sort of move Malaysia takes but also Indonesia, the Middle East and the rest of the Islamic world. If Najib and Umno try to make use of the kangaroo courts to uphold the current Allah ban, they will damage their own credibility as well as tarnish Malaysia's image as a stable and moderate nation.
"The Middle Eastern countries will also have a good laugh because over there, the Christians freely use the word and practise their faith. The Muslims there don't feel the pressure to keep Allah to themselves. This is a real Pandora's Box for Najib."
Tian was referring to the Malaysian government's ban on non- Muslims using the word Allah to describe God in their worship, magazines and other paraphernalia.
The Malaysian Appeals Court recently reversed a late 2009 High Court decision, disallowing Catholic magazine The Herald from using the Allah word and extending the ban to all non-Muslims in the country.
Legal groups have slammed the Appeals Court's controversial decision as "unfair", "unprincipled", "irrational" and going against the Federal Constitution which guarantees non-Muslims the freedom to practise their faith. And to the non-Muslims, it is unacceptable interference for the government to try to disallow them to call their God Allah in their religious practise and rites.
The Catholic Church has appealed the appellate court's decision which had been made by a 3-member all Malay-Muslim panel. All eyes are on now whether Malaysia's apex court will be allowed to hear the case or be 'politically influenced' into denying the Church a hearing.
According to Umcedel, its survey was conducted between Dec 6 to 8 on a sample of 1,676 respondents, whom the surveyors interviewed face to face. - MORE TO COME - Malaysia Chronicle
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