I really felt sad on Malaysian prime minster, Najib Razak, Jan. 24 statement wherein he supported courts judgment banning non-Muslims (read Malaysian Christians) from using word Allah in Bible text and in church services. As per court, only Muslims can use the word Allah and Malay-speaking Christians have to forego their centuries-old practice of calling the God as Allah. What do you call this — authorities attempt to distract Malay Muslims, who constitute 60% of the population, attention from subsidy cuts and rising cost of living, or it’s simple a case of narrow-mindedness to put various religious groups against each other to perpetuate the grip over power. Since such ban was imposed there were a number of violent protests followed by arson incidents. Christians have refused to go by the ban and vowed to continue use of word Allah in the church services – means things are moving towards showdown.
Regardless of any falsified justification, it’s a regrettable action and shall be condemned across the board. Malaysians shall learn from Pakistan what successive governments over there gained by pitching various religious and sectarian groups against each other. Such a narrow-mindedness created monsters of ignorance and death. Today no one in Pakistan knows how to put this uncontrolled genie back in the bottle.
We wish better sense will prevail in Malaysia; for rest of the Muslim world Malaysia used to be an island of peace and tolerance. Sad, it’s no more as an evil eye has casted its bad shadow on a moderate and progressive country.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia
The fact is that the word ‘ALLAH” pre-dates Islam as the name given to GOD. Politicians have a nasty habit of meddling in matters best left alone. As for the Malaysian Courts, well what actually was the wording of the judgement?
This leads one to conclude that the list of 15 demands made public by the media a day earlier was probably correct. On Sunday Maulana Abdul Aziz, another member of the Samiul Haq committee
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