When coming to the peninsula, leave 'Allah' behind

YOURSAY 'If we follow Mahathir's logic, Christian ministers and MPs from East Malaysia should drop their religion when they come to peninsular Malaysia.'

Why rock the boat over 'Allah', asks Dr M

Sali Tambap: What hogwash this old man is saying. There are hundreds of thousands of Sarawakians and Sabahans in Malaya as a result of unfair distributions of wealth and development by the Mahathir administration, the money of which came from their natural resources like petroleum.

These Sarawakians and Sabahans have no choice but come to the peninsula to better their livelihood and education. And they have been using and speaking the word 'Allah' for it is in their language; it is never a translation.

Sirach: As the patron of Perkasa, it's no surprise that Dr Mahathir Mohamad would say this. There are thousands of Christians from Sabah and Sarawak working and living in the peninsula who wish to worship in the way they are accustomed to. What's wrong with that?

Don't rock the boat indeed. One can ask what he was doing by actively condoning the influx of illegals into Sabah to re-engineer the ethnic and religious composition for political gain.

Ib: I suppose if we follow Mahathir's logic, Christian ministers and MPs from East Malaysia should drop their religion when they come to peninsular Malaysia.

For those that still want to pray, they might as well resign and go home. And the rest of East Malaysians can no longer pray here, so why should anyone in the world recognise Malaysia as a legitimate country?

CHKS: Mahathir, you said non-Muslims should not bring the word 'Allah' to Semenanjung? Which means, when a Sabahan or Sarawakian checks in at immigration in Semenanjung, the Allah name has to stay at home in Borneo, he or she has to use a new name.

Here's my question: How about when this Sabahan or Sarawakian is still up in the sky in a flight? Which name should he or she use? Does the court ruling apply to the sky as well? If yes, where is boundary in the sky?

Borealis: Only idiots can't differentiate which god they are worshiping. You can't own a religion, you can only practice it or have faith in it.

Religions don't need protection. Confusing Malaysians by using race and religion issues is too late now because the majority Malays have "awakened".

They are intelligent and smart so this will never work for BN anymore. You are running out of time.

TakeMiddlepath: At first it's a small fire and they add fuel to it. Now the fire burns out of control and they don't know how to douse it.

Mahathir, you are the adviser of Perkasa - the NGO that makes the most noise about this. There can't be two laws; one for Peninsular and East Malaysia.

Ipohcrite: Why rock the boat indeed! Because it's the only logical, morally right and decent thing to do.

And Muslims the whole world over think the same. And they said so in no uncertain terms. Except Umno and their Malaysian Malay-Muslim cohorts. What a sad indictment for the sorry state of Islam in Malaysia.

Mohamad Abdul Malik: Maybe what he said was not to the liking of certain people. I am no Mahathir supporter but what he was saying was the truth. The question to be ask not withstanding the courts findings or the legality of the matter is - why now? It was not an issue before.

The Sikhs has been using it. The East Malaysians too has been using it for more than a century. And we did not hear any ordinary Muslims protesting about it. But the problem started when the West Malaysians wanted to use it when they have not been using it all those while.

This creates the suspicion among the Muslims that they have ulterior motives in doing what they did.

Proud Sarawakian: Mohamad Abdul Malik, when Sarawakians and Sabahans go over to Peninsular to work or study, we bring our Malay bibles with us and we continue with our practice of praying to Allah.

So now, it means that we will become criminals over there and you agree?

Peace: Mahathir has forgotten there are East Malaysians in the peninsula, as he thinks this is his land only. He also forgets that it was his Project IC that has made Sabahans minorities in their own land that they have to come to the peninsula to try and make a living.

To him they don't matter, and their religion and culture is irrelevant to him, except during election time.

Louis: Mahathir forgot that human beings cannot remain static. They tend to move from places to places in search of opportunities. Sabahans and Sarawakians are no different. Many would have migrated to Peninsular Malaysia, and in the process bring their valued possessions, and very often the bibles are the most valued, having used for decades will not trade them for the world.

So what do you expect those migrants do? Change their bibles and ways of worship? Change the way they call God?

Oriole: There are a couple of comments here. First of all, it's not anybody else and certainly not the state's business what an individual or a faith choose to call their god. The fellow who stirred this controversy up was that huffing, puffing Syed Hamid Albar if memory serves, so please call him out on this.

Secondly, Mahathir needs to understand the dynamic nature of culture as something that's constantly changing. A healthy nation allows for this dynamisn whereas repressive regimes keep looking backwards.

Finally, the original language of Christianity is old Aramaic, one of the languages that is still in use in orthodox churches is Syriac. In that language, the word 'aloho' and 'alaha' is common and can be heard in mass.

Some of these mass are actually recited even in the peninsula. So Mahathir is only showing his ignorance when he says that this is not used in the peninsula. Did you think that the original language of Christianity is English, you ignorant man?

Malaccan: Allah is never used in the Peninsular? Mahathir is badly mistaken. Does he think the Baba people just came off a boat yesterday? Did the Orang Asli just come in the evening bus?

Both communities have used 'Allah' long before Mahathir's family became overnight Malays and bumiputeras. - Malaysiakini