Test for 1M'sia: Revoke 'Allah' ban
Published: Nov 2, 2009 5:43 AM | Updated: Nov 2, 2009 6:42 AM
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has been asked to urge the cabinet to revoke the decision to ban the use of the word 'Allah' for religions other than Islam.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has been asked to urge the cabinet to revoke the decision to ban the use of the word 'Allah' for religions other than Islam.
According to DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang, this would be a test on whether the premier's 1Malaysia slogan is to be taken seriously.
"Malaysia is again at the centre of adverse international publicity despite our tourist promotion of Malaysia as a harmonious and model multi-religious nation," he added in a statement.
Lim said in the past few days, international media like CNN have been giving high-profile coverage to the government's seizure of 15,000 Bibles in recent months because they refer to God as 'Allah'.
This, he alleged, is raising concerns and fears of religious intolerance in the country.
Last month, a consignment of 10,000 copies of the Indonesian-language Bibles which featured the disputed word 'Allah' was confiscated in Kuching, Sarawak, while another consignment of 5,100 Bibles was seized in March.
Lim said the decision taken by the cabinet to ban the use of the word 'Allah' for religions other than Islam is "most unreasonable, divisive and even unconstitutional decision."
He pointed out that the term 'Allah' was in use long before there was the religion of Islam in the world.
'Make a bold stand'
The opposition leader said Malaysia is probably the only nation where the use of the term 'Allah' by Christians to refer to their God is prohibited, whereas its use to refer to the Christian God has never been prohibited in many countries in the Middle-East and the Americas.
He said confiscation of the Bibles and the ban were "incongruous with and even inimical to Najib's 1Malaysia objective to give top priority to foster better inter-racial, inter-religious and inter-civilisational relations among Malaysians."
In view of this, the Ipoh Timor MP hoped that all cabinet ministers, particularly from MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sabah and Sarawak component parties of Barisan Nasional, would take a bold and united stand on this issue.
He reminded them that the issue affected the "very credibility and legitimacy" of Najib's 1Malaysia slogan and policy.
In January, the Home Ministry issued a blanket ban on the use of the word Allah by religions other than Islam.
The ban invoked under Section 9 of the Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Islamic Religious State Enactment, made it an offence for Muslims and non-Muslims alike to publish or broadcast the word "Allah" in association with non-Islamic religions
This sparked a flurry of protest from Malaysia's Christian community and clergy which included legal action to set aside and declare the Home Ministry's decision as unconstitutional.
The issue was sparked by Christian newspaper Herald-The Catholic Weekly circulated among the country's 850,000 Catholics, when it used the disputed word in its Malay-language edition last year and nearly lost its publishing license.
According to DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang, this would be a test on whether the premier's 1Malaysia slogan is to be taken seriously."Malaysia is again at the centre of adverse international publicity despite our tourist promotion of Malaysia as a harmonious and model multi-religious nation," he added in a statement.
Lim said in the past few days, international media like CNN have been giving high-profile coverage to the government's seizure of 15,000 Bibles in recent months because they refer to God as 'Allah'.
This, he alleged, is raising concerns and fears of religious intolerance in the country.
Last month, a consignment of 10,000 copies of the Indonesian-language Bibles which featured the disputed word 'Allah' was confiscated in Kuching, Sarawak, while another consignment of 5,100 Bibles was seized in March.
Lim said the decision taken by the cabinet to ban the use of the word 'Allah' for religions other than Islam is "most unreasonable, divisive and even unconstitutional decision."
He pointed out that the term 'Allah' was in use long before there was the religion of Islam in the world.
'Make a bold stand'
The opposition leader said Malaysia is probably the only nation where the use of the term 'Allah' by Christians to refer to their God is prohibited, whereas its use to refer to the Christian God has never been prohibited in many countries in the Middle-East and the Americas.
He said confiscation of the Bibles and the ban were "incongruous with and even inimical to Najib's 1Malaysia objective to give top priority to foster better inter-racial, inter-religious and inter-civilisational relations among Malaysians."In view of this, the Ipoh Timor MP hoped that all cabinet ministers, particularly from MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sabah and Sarawak component parties of Barisan Nasional, would take a bold and united stand on this issue.
He reminded them that the issue affected the "very credibility and legitimacy" of Najib's 1Malaysia slogan and policy.
In January, the Home Ministry issued a blanket ban on the use of the word Allah by religions other than Islam.
The ban invoked under Section 9 of the Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Islamic Religious State Enactment, made it an offence for Muslims and non-Muslims alike to publish or broadcast the word "Allah" in association with non-Islamic religions
This sparked a flurry of protest from Malaysia's Christian community and clergy which included legal action to set aside and declare the Home Ministry's decision as unconstitutional.
The issue was sparked by Christian newspaper Herald-The Catholic Weekly circulated among the country's 850,000 Catholics, when it used the disputed word in its Malay-language edition last year and nearly lost its publishing license.
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