A new year begins for the world, but for crisis-hit Malaysia there are NO BLESSINGS from 'ALLAH'

As we enter the new year, the 'Allah' problem threatens to escalate further into a crisis beyond repair unless the government acts firmly once and for all to resolve the decades old thorn-in-the-flesh for Muslims as well as non-Muslims.

The right place to start looking for a solution is in the Federal Constitution, the supreme law in the country. Article 3 (1) makes it plain that: "Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation."

Things began becoming untenable when attempts were made by the government to declare Malaysia an Islamic State. The last straw was when the Court of Appeal ruled on 10 Oct 2013 that the word 'Allah' to refer to God is not integral to the Christian faith. The dispute between the Herald and the government since 2007 over the usage of the word by Malay speaking Christians has now reached the Federal Court for a final determination.

Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, who is the publisher of the Herald and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia responded immediately by issuing a statement that " …to conclude that the word 'Allah' is not essential to the Christian faith would be a grave denial of the fundamental right of the Bahasa Malaysia speaking Christian community to use this word in prayer, worship services, prayer books, the Alkitab and other publications. This would be tantamount to signaling a form of persecution."

Anglican Archbishop Bolly Lapok, who is also Anglican Archbishop for Southeast Asia and president of the Sarawak Association of Churches also issued a statement saying, "The Bumiputera Church will continue to use the word 'Allah' as it is the fundamental to all aspects of our profession and practice of our Christian faith."

"In deciding thus, the judges have arrogated to themselves a right that does not belong to any human court of law-the right to determine religion. It is the fundamental right of every religion to determine its expression and practice of its own faith…. In the face of such unreasonableness we cannot and should not remain silent, " he added.

His counterpart, the president of the Sabah Council of Churches, Bishop Dr Thomas Tsen, concurred and said "The 'Allah' controversy is about unreasonable government policies and laws that infringe on the right of non-Muslim Malaysians to practise their religion of choice."

He cited Article 11 (1) of the Federal Constitution as spelling out the constitutional guarantee that every person has the right to profess and practice his religion and to propagate it, and among other things, the right to manage its own religious affairs.

He said, "This right includes the right of Christians to decide for themselves questions about Bible translations including rendering the word 'God' as 'Allah' in the Alkitab, our Malay language Bible."

New JAIS director

Temperatures rose perceptibly last week when the newly appointed director of Jais, Ahmad Zaharin Mohd Saad, said the state religious authorities would draw up a list of Selangor churches before writing to ask them to comply with the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988 which prohibits non-Muslims in Selangor from using 35 Arabic words and phrases, including 'Allah'.

Fr Lawrence, editor of the Catholic Herald weekly newspaper, responded by insisting saying all Catholic churches in Selangor will continue to use the 'Allah' word.

Umno Selangor immediately demanded an apology and threatened to protest outside all churches in Selangor this Sunday unless Lawrence apologised for his statement.

While all this was happening over in the peninsula, native or Bumiputera Christians in Sabah have decided to make a stand at a consecration ceremony they called 'mamangkis' last week in Penampang, the heartland of the Kadazandusun, by a new NGO called Perpaduan Anak Negeri (PAN) Sabah, or Sabah Natives Solidarity.

War cry

Mamangkis is a war or victory cry, pagan ritual, which has been contextualized by indigenous Christians. At the ceremony, PAN president, Pastor Esther Golingi, declared, "Today, we say it's time to sound our war cry. Are you ready? Again we say, are you ready?

"We call on Prime Minister Najib Razak to roll back extremism within Umno and the Islamic establishment. He has the choice to be a statesman or a jaguh kampung. He cannot be both."

"Today, we have lost our God-given freedom in every sense of the word. We are not even allowed to refer to God as Allah in our liturgical language. Worst still, we are not even allowed to teach our children and their children about God, whom they know as Allah, the Almighty Creator of the universe and all that is in it, " she added.

She reminded the congregation, "Before we execute the mamangkis, please be reminded this is call to return to justice and righteousness, and most of all to holiness for God is a Holy God."

Penampang is the start of the mamangkis movement which will move into the interior Kadazandusun and Murut heartlands over the next six months. - mysinchew