By Stephen Ng
Malaysiakini
Oct 12, 2013
As the nation anxiously awaits the Court of Appeal’s decision on Monday regarding the use of the word ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims, a short chapter on the controversial issue in former Tenaga Nasional Bhd chief’s latest book, ‘Memoirs of Tan Sri Ani Arope’, is both apt and timely.
Representing the “endangered species” of broadminded Malays who grew up in multicultural Malaysia, Ani asks, “Why there is so much uneasiness among Muslims to hear others using the word loosely?”
Ani is referring to the dispute on the use of ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims in Malaysia, which has gone all the way up to the appellate court.
It has also created tension between Muslims and non-Muslims in the country, which led to a few churches being fire-bombed following the High Court decision to allow the Catholic weekly The Herald to use the word ‘Allah’ for God in Bahasa Malaysia, the language used by many Christians in Sabah and Sarawak.
Pig’s heads, wrapped in plastic, were also found in two mosques in Kuala Lumpur, but to date police have not arrested the culprits.
Sincere and frank dialogue
According to Ani, the term and use of the word ‘Allah’ is not and cannot be exclusive to Muslims.
“The Jews and Christians in the Arab speaking world would use the name ‘Allah’ to refer to the Almighty,” he argues.
He further explains: “Allah (swt) to us, Muslims, is not merely a word but more importantly, the concept from an Islamic teaching.”
The octogenarian, who turned 81 recently, said he had hoped that his sincere and frank dialogue on the Allah row could help to “continue to build peaceful and friendly relationships based upon mutual respect, justice, and what is common in essence in our shared Abrahamic tradition, particularly ‘the two greatest commandments’ in Mark 12:29-31 (and, in varying form, in Matthew 22:37-40), that the Lord, our God, is one Lord (Rabi Allahu Ahad).”
‘Memoirs of Tan Sri Ani Arope’ is published by the Fulbright Alumni Association of Malaysia. The soft-launch of the 143-page book was done at the Fulbright’s 50th anniversary dinner in July this year by its president, Professor Dr Gendeh Balwant.
The book will be available in major bookstores nationwide soon.
STEPHEN NG is a chemist by training. He dealt with printing ink, paint and emulsion polymer for 15 years before becoming a freelance writer.
“the term and use of the word ‘All@h’ is not and cannot be exclusive to Muslims.”
SURE meh? NOT seditious meh?
The country of origin of this religion will be the first one to say it is seditious to use the word.
“I do not want somebody to come and urinate on my grave. In the Malay culture, that is about the worst insult they can do to a man,”
Ha, ha – Guess whose grave will b p!ssed upon by rakyat non-stop 遗臭万年
Peaceful religion n followers
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/284006
Getting violent
Let’s get one thing straight.
Very, very straight!
Those who stirred up all these religious and racial nonsense wanted to cause trouble to the opposition.
And as they have no substantial issues to hang onto them, what else can they do??
Resort to such emotive nonsense!
They were thinking that the Malays, especially the simpletons in the rural areas, will swallow their propaganda hook, line and sinker!!!
But as we can see, more and more Malays are waking up to the clear and present dangers of such non-issues.
The opposition can counter them by ensuring that the Malays who are more enlightened to spread the word that religion and race are non-issues.
But corruption, scams and scandals are!!!
And the ways that they, the opposition, can correct these criminality and provide a better future for all Malaysians.
Not only that, these enlightened Malays should also try to get like minded people like them to spread the word as well.
This will have a multiplier effect and will snowball into something big.
Hopefully, the end result will be a better government in Putrajaya in the foreseeable future.
So if everyone is a Muslim, does it help ?
They wanted declare their god is their god, your god is god not the same
Christian modern writing their god is LOVE, their want to declare their god is difference, now it is one god or they are many gods
They wanted declare their god is their god, your god is your god, not the same
Christian modern writing their god is LOVE, their want to declare their god is difference, now it is one god or they are many gods
They wanted declare their god is their god, your god is your god, not the same
Christian modern writing their god is LOVE, they want to declare their god is difference, now it is one god or there are many gods
If everyone is god children, god love his children by giving them freedom to choose what he want to do in daily activities,don’t think he have giving human authority to stop what he giving his children FREEDOM..
Human beings fight. But there can only be one. And this one cannot contradict Himself. If He contradicts Himself, He loses the credibility for anyone to believe in Him. How can you believe, how can you trust in some one who is not credible ?
While d Pg MOB blessed 2 go around bullying n threatening peaceful rakyat (with d likelihood of triggering a riot), a single Pg GIANT conquered d world with bl0od, sweat n tears
SYABAS 2 Nicol David, World Champion in Squash (Ladies) 4 d 8th time
“She had to recover from a game and 2-6 down, from 6-10 down in the fourth game” in front of a noisy partisan home crowd
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sports/article/david-captures-eighth-world-title
Amazing n fantastic achievement! Congrats!
The Malaysian Government must sponsor Malaysian Muslim representatives to visit the Middle-East, especially the Christian Holy Lands. Then, they can personally see how Christians use the word “Allah” to refer to God, without any contention or objection from Muslims. The reason is that Christians were refering to God as “Allah” long before the advent of Islam.