No group should or can claim exclusive ownership of the word ‘Allah’ as it is not a patented copyright of any ethnic group, said MCA spokesperson Gan Ping Sieu.

Gan, who is also the political education bureau chairperson and a central committee member, lauded the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision last Thursday as a bold and rational judgment.

sikh prayer 040108 01 “For time immemorial, Sikhs have referred to their God as ‘Allah’. Renowned 19th-century Malay-Muslim scholar and linguist Munshi Abdullah who translated ‘God’ as ‘Allah’ into the Malay language remained a pious Muslim and was never confused,” Gan said in a statement.

Gan asked whether other segments of society would be deprived of the right to pledge allegiance to royalty or sing state anthems containing the word ‘Allah’, if it remains exclusive to one section of society.

He said MCA is taken aback and dismayed by certain ethnic- and religious-based NGOs who have held protests in Penang and Kuala Lumpur following the High Court ruling.

NONE The party, Gan said, supports Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's call for all quarters to remain calm .

Gan asserted that an individual’s definition of ‘God’ should not be used as justification to declare that usage by others is inappropriate. Followers of other religions have a right to use ‘Allah’ in their own faith- practices or publications.

Citing “confusion” as grounds for the ban is a deliberate attempt to divert attention from the real issue of law and constitutional rights of Malaysians to freedom of religion and to profess their faith peacefully, he noted.

“Any individual imbued with iron will in his faith (but who) is open-minded to respecting, reading and learning clinically the creeds and practices of other religions...will remain true to his original religious conviction without any consideration of renunciation.”

‘Rights upheld’

Gan said it is a historical fact that ‘Allah’ predates Islam. Arabic speakers of other Abrahamic faiths that include Christians and Jews have also used ‘Allah’.

He said MCA further refutes as flawed, any interpretation that Arab Christians refer to God as ‘Tuhan’ and not ‘Allah’.

Arab Christians in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, refer to the Almighty as ‘Allah’, as do Indonesian Christians.

gan ping shou “Since all Arab, Middle Eastern and Indonesian Christians are able to refer to God as ‘Allah’ freely, without threat of punitive action, should not we in Malaysia follow suit in accordance with Article 3 of the federal constitution?”

He said it does not make sense to penalise the thousands of Malay-speaking Christians and Sikhs who have for centuries referred to God as ‘Allah’ in their prayers.

The High Court ruling, said Gan, is a matter of law in upholding the rights of Malaysians. The Herald has also satisfied the main condition of its publishing permit, in that it is sold within church grounds.

Gan called for the matter not be turned into a religious debate or politicised as a racial or religious issue.

“MCA calls upon all groups to respect the way of life of bumiputera Christians and Sikh Malaysians, and not remove their constitutional rights,” he added.

The Home Ministry filed an appeal against the ruling yesterday, followed by a stay application today.