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January 17, 2013
Debate over Christians Calling God 'Allah' Re-Ignites in Malaysia
(Updated) Christians, Sikhs, Muslims prepare for second legal tussle as sultan attempts to ban non-Muslim use of the word.
Update (Jan. 24): World Watch Monitors offers an in-depth report here. Meanwhile the Vatican is opening the equivalent of an embassy in Malaysia.
Update (Jan. 23): Reuters reports that an independent member of Malaysia's parliament has issued a call to "seize and burn copies of Bibles which use the word 'Allah' to refer to God."
But Ibrahim Ali, whose political group supports the rights of the ethnic Malay Muslim majority could face charges under various laws, Malaysia's Bar Council said. Whether or not Ali is prosecuted, though, his call to burn Bibles foreshadows "an intense election struggle as the country prepares for an election which must be called by April."
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A prominent Malaysian sultan is attempting to ban non-Muslims from using the term Allah, the Arabic word for god, in prayers and religious materials, sparking protests and reviving a longstanding debate over whether Christians in Southeast Asia should refer to God as Allah.
Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah has called for an emergency meeting of the Selangor Islamic Religious Council in order to ensure that the government enforces a 2010 ban on the use of Allah by non-Muslims. The issue arose following a Christmas message by Lim Guan Eng, secretary-general for an opposition party, which encouraged the government "to lift its ban on the word published in the Malay bibles shipped in to Sabah and Sarawak, who form the bulk of Malaysia’s 9.2 percent Christian population," according to the Malaysia Insider.
But this is not the first time that the word Allah has come under legal scrutiny. As CT first examined in 2009, the Malaysian High Court ruled that use of the word could not be restricted to Muslims, allowing the Malaysian Catholic newspaper Herald to publish the word in its weekly edition. In that ruling, the judge found that "'a non-Muslim could be committing an offence if he uses the word Allah to a Muslim but there would be no offence if it was used to a non-Muslim.'"
That ruling—essentially allowing Christians and other non-Muslims the right to use the word Allah—is still in effect, unless the government successfully overturns it on appeal, Hermen Shastri, secretary-general of the Council of Churches in Malaysia (CCM), an umbrella body representing all the Protestant churches nationwide, told Malaysia Insider.
CT has previously reported on Malaysia, including the country's decision to ban all religious discussions in 2006. CT first reported on whether Christians should refer to God as Allah in 2009.
Comments
It's time for Christians everywhere to start calling our God by his proper name - Yahweh. He gave it to us to use. It will be a curse from here on out to call Yahweh, Allah. In the name of Allah is part of the mark of the beast and is associated with the great dragon - Satan. Please heed this warning!.
Posted By: Leon | January 17, 2013 11:00 AM
Mohammed institutioned the 5 times prayer daily. Each time coincides with one key part in Jesus life, with the primary time being set on Friday noon. Coincidence?
Mohammed also changed the direction of prayer to Mecca after Jerusalem. After. Why?
They believe that it is the place where Abraham sacrificed..Ishmael.
It's also, coincidentially , the place where intense idol worship took place. Who was the chief diety at the time and it's name?
How much of a "believer" was he before he got his visions, and did these visions tell him what name to call the one true God?
Having said that, the church needs to ask if there are potential curses and spiritual legal implications in calling our Father, Allah; IF we know what the original refrence is.
If we know that the food had been offered to idols, do we eat it, especially if it stumbles someone else, and perhaps ourselves in the process?
If it's just a question of historical names and culture , i can accept the word being used; especially by Middle Eastern brethen, who would find Allah, just as comforting in the spirit as we do with The Lord, Our Father, Yahweh..and perhaps for Muslim background believers, it is the best word.
But is it, if we look deeper?
Posted By: allen | January 17, 2013 8:53 PM
Folks, "ALLAH" is NOT the God of the Bible. "ALLAH" is a demon god that should not be worshipped. DO NOT USE that name for ANY reason except to point out the EVIL of ALLAH. Yes I said that.
Posted By: Jim Biven | January 18, 2013 10:11 AM
It's a sad commentary on our Christian faith when a Muslim government has to make a law saying that Christians may not use the Muslim god's name. it is sacred to Muslims. Christians, can't you figure that out for yourself! Obviously the Muslims are much more faithful to their own god then Christians. Stop compromising our precious Lord and Saviors name for the sake of not offending others. Do you really think other religions are afraid of offending Christians? Did any of their gods' sacrifice their life for you? Call out to that precious name of JESUS, name above all names there is no name greater in all the earth!
Posted By: Dena Hering | January 19, 2013 10:46 AM
Actually, it's not quite so simple. First, Christians in Arabia have been using "Allah" to refer to the true God for centuries. When I asked a dear Christian Arab friend, who, by the way, was living in the US, but had grown up in Syria, why she called God "Allah," she said that that is what Arab Christians have always called God. Second, as I understand it, the word "Allah" pre-dates Mohammedanism (the name the religion used to be known as when I was a child).
Posted By: Gordon | January 20, 2013 1:56 AM
"Allah" does pre-date Mohammed and Islam. The arabs at one time worshipped many gods, and the name of the moon god was "allah". That was the favorite god in Mohammed's family, and so he commanded all to worship only "allah", It is a false god, it is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The two religions are far apart, and do not have the same God. That is also why you see the crescent on their flags.
Posted By: stacy | January 20, 2013 4:12 PM
Its "good" to see that the moon god theory is still alive and well. Incidentally the term "Elah" and "El" was also used for many other gods apart from the God of Abraham and Isaac.
So is it Yahweh or Jehovah or even YHWH or should we just abandon all our native languages and stick to the English term "God"? Somewhat ironical since the first Malay language translation of the Bible that uses "Allah" was published within 10 years of the beloved King James Version.
The type of bigotry expressed by the comments here are a spittin' image of the bigotry expressed by those who seek to bar us Malaysian Christians from worshipping our God as we see fit in the terminology and language that we have been using for centuries.
To the uninitiated, "Allah" is merely one of the many terms that these bigots have attempted to legislate as exclusive to the use of Malaysian Islam. Other terms include "Injil" (Evangel - Good News), "Firman" (Logos - Word), "Bait" (Temple - as in the Jerusalem variety), and whole list of maybe 2 dozen or more, many of which are part of the Christian vocabulary in this region for at least 400 years.
So by standing down on "Allah", where do we next stop? Are we supposed to allow a body of pseudo-Muslim ethno-theologians determine the theology and practice of the Christian faith next?
Posted By: Bob K | January 20, 2013 9:25 PM
Bigotry is just another form which fear masquerades in. Yes, in Malaysia we have this phenomena amongst a spectrum of Muslims. In regard to protecting their exclusive use of the term Allah , it seems that the primary driver is the fear of Muslims being confused and hearded to the wrong path of being Christian influenced, even to the extent of burning bibles, enacting laws, having "rehabilitation" centres" etc.
That is not the question that should be addressed. [the motive of the Muslims]. And ironically, they have the same question as to the motive of the church..
And to add, just because it has been used historically by Christians in the past and in varied cultures does not necessarily make it right, or entirely wrong either.
The questions that should be addressed is "is this deity, named Allah, a name that should be used by Christains or not"?
Honestly, my spirit is troubled when i see the Jihadists islamists running around invoking the same name that the Church is fighting to use.
Posted By: allen | January 22, 2013 2:21 AM
Fair observations.
But my spirit is equally troubled by how the name of the Lord and the Church is used during The Troubles, Apartheid and to a lesser degree, by the likes of Westboro Baptist Church.
Posted By: Bob K | January 22, 2013 5:58 AM
Dena,
If I want to refer to our precious Lord and Saviour's name, I will, like you, call out "JESUS"! Or in my national language (Malaysian - heavily influenced by Arabic, among others), "Yesus", which is a good translation of the Hebrew "Yeshua".
However, if I want to translate the Hebrew word "Elohim" (e.g. Gen 1:1) and "Elah" (e.g. Ezra 5:1 - Elah Yisrael), I cannot use "Yesus"! I have to use Allah or I have no other words to use.
Posted By: Steven Foong | January 24, 2013 5:26 AM
Ergo: the ubiquitous "Allah salute".
Posted By: David Stafford | January 30, 2013 12:39 PM
Allah Is Not YHWH - A name should never be translated, The correct name is YHWH Not Allah or God or LORD.
Posted By: Terraza | May 2, 2013 6:29 PM
It all boils down to, which story do u prefer?
O people of the Book. (Jews, Christians, Muslims)
Come gather & bring all ur Books & come to a term where all of u can agree upon.
Then go back & firmly believe in that.
Just that common term agreed upon by all the Books.
Settle on ur agreeable points according to ur Book & not on ur differences.
Why waste time fighting & quarelling over petty debates which is of useless benefit?
Isaiah/Yesus/Isa ain't no God.
"God" never existed.
Go google where the term "God" came from.
Blasphemy it is to use the term "God".
Only believe in:
The One that Exists.
The One that created us all.
The One All-Mighty Creator.
The Creator that created Adam.
The Creator that created Noah/Nuh
The Creator that created Abraham/Ibrahim
The Creator that created Moses/Musa
The Creator that created Isaiah/Yesus/Isa.
The Creator that created Muhammad.
What do you get?
Posted By: darthmaul666 | May 2, 2013 10:56 PM
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