The Malay Mail Online
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 2013— The appellate court judgment barring non-Muslims from referring to God as “Allah” has thrown up another obstacle in the inter-religious engagement between two of the world’s largest faiths, The Economist said.
The international current affairs magazine noted that, as it was, devout followers of both Abrahamic faiths are inclined to disagree that they worship the same God, and that arguments by monotheists over the question could lead to impassioned debate or even violence on the streets.
“A fresh, unhelpful contribution came from a Malaysian appeals court which has just affirmed that non-Muslims must not use the world ‘Allah’ when referring to God in any public context,” The Economist wrote in an opinion piece titled “Malaysia and monotheism: In the name of Allah”, published yesterday.
“This is the latest twist in a saga which began in 2007 when the government banned the use of the word ‘Allah’—which is the usual word for God in the Malay language—by the Herald, a Catholic newspaper,” added the magazine.
On Monday, the Court of Appeal ruled against a 2009 High Court decision allowing the Catholic Church to refer to the Christian god with the Arabic word “Allah” in the Bahasa Malaysia section of its weekly paper, the Herald.
The court adjudged the usage of the word “Allah” as not integral to the Christian faith and said that allowing such an application would cause confusion in the Muslim community.
The 2009 High Court ruling, which found that the word “Allah” was not exclusive to Muslims, had sparked a string of attacks like arson and vandalism against non-Muslim places of worship, including Christian churches and Sikh temples.
The Catholic Church has said that it will make an appeal to the Federal Court, the country’s highest court.
The Economist also pointed out the rarity of Malaysia’s decision, noting that such protestations over the “Arabic” word did not exist elsewhere or, indeed, even in the Middle East.
“Go into any traditional church in the Middle East and you will hear the chant: ‘Quddusan Allah, Quddusan al-Qawi’ (‘Holy God, Holy and Strong...’),” it added.
The magazine noted that the origin of the chant is said to be Greek-speaking Constantinople, but that chances are, people have been singing similar chants in Semitic languages, of which Arabic is one, for centuries before.
“Whatever the Malaysian judiciary ultimately decides, it will not stop Christians in the Arabic-speaking world, and in countries where Arabic influence has been strong, from calling on the name of Allah,” wrote The Economist.
Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday that non-Muslims with good intentions can call God “Allah”.
He added that Umno has misled some Muslims into thinking that Christians want to use the word “Allah” to intentionally confuse Muslims and to convert them.
In 2010, Anwar also wrote in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal that Muslim scholars outside Malaysia found the claim to the monopoly on “Allah” “absurd”.
“It is accepted that the word was already in the lexicon of pre-Islamic Arabs,” wrote the head of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact.
“Historical manuscripts prove that Arabic-speaking Muslims, Christian and Jews have collectively prayed to God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, as ‘Allah’ for over 1,400 years,” he added.
The PKR de facto leader also noted that Arabic’s “sister Semitic languages” similarly refer to God as “Allah”, namely “Elaha” in Aramaic and “Elohim” in Hebrew.
The Economist wrote that arguments about monotheism might have little impact in calming passions, but said: “a bit of broad historical perspective certainly does no harm”.
