Sabah, Sarawak Christians can continue to use ‘Allah’, says minister

 

Entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister Ewon Benedick said while Islam is acknowledged as the federal religion, Putrajaya must also safeguard the beliefs of others.

PETALING JAYA: The Cabinet has agreed that the policy allowing Christians from Sabah and Sarawak the right to use the word “Allah” in all religious services and literature will continue, says Upko president Ewon Benedick.

Ewon, who is also entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister, said the matter was raised in the Cabinet for discussion with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim before coming to an agreement on the “status quo”, The Borneo Post reported.

“Christians in Sabah and Sarawak, or from the two states, may use the word ‘Allah’ during their prayers.

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“They may also use the word in their publications of religious materials but the materials have to be stamped with a ‘For Christians Only’ seal,” he was quoted as saying in Kota Kinabalu when distributing aid to schools around his constituency.

Ewon, who is Penampang MP, said that even though Malaysia’s official religion is Islam, Malaysians of other faiths must also be allowed to practise their belief in peace and harmony.

Anwar recently said that the word “Allah” can only be used by Christians in Sarawak to publish religious materials.

The move invited debate and criticisms from Sabahans, seeing that they have used the word to worship for centuries too.

It was previously reported that the Christian community in Sabah and Sarawak had been using the word for about 400 years, for religious services and literature in their native language and in the Malay language too.

In 2011, then prime minister Najib Razak allowed over 35,000 new copies of the Malay-language Bible, or Al-Kitab, that had been impounded in Kuching and Port Klang by the home ministry to be released but on the condition that the words “For Christians only” be stamped on each book.

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Then, in October 2013, following the ruling by the Court of Appeal that the Roman Catholic church could not use the word “Allah” in the Malay edition of its weekly, Herald, Najib said the decision on the use of the word “Allah” does not affect Christians in Sabah and Sarawak. - FMT