Members of Perkasa hold a rally outside the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya on October …
The Malay Mail Online
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 2013 — Putrajaya should revisit the proposal to have two separate rules for East and West Malaysia, Sabah Umno’s Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan proposed following a controversial court ruling restricting the use of the word “Allah” to refer to Islam’s god.
The Sabah Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary also said that despite the Court of Appeal verdict, the federal government should uphold the 10-point solution it issued in 2011 that allows the printing, importation and distribution of the Al-Kitab, the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Christian bible, that contains the Arabic word “Allah”.
“One of the common sense solutions is to have two laws - one for the peninsula and one for Sabah and Sarawak,” Abdul Rahman toldThe Malay Mail Online when contacted yesterday.
The minister of urban wellbeing, housing and local government was referring to then-de facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s proposal in 2010 that Christians in East Malaysia be allowed to call God “Allah”, but that their counterparts in West Malaysia should remain prohibited from doing so.
Nazri had said that non-Muslims could only use the Middle Eastern word in Sabah, Sarawak, Penang and the Federal Territories, as other states have Islamic enactments that bar such usage in non-Muslim creeds.
He had also said that Muslims in Borneo were fine with Christians using the word “Allah” because of their “custom and culture”.
East Malaysia is known for its cultural diversity and racial and religious tolerance.
The Court of Appeal unanimously overturned Monday the 2009 Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling that allowed the Catholic Church to use the word “Allah” in the Bahasa Malaysia section of its weekly newsletter, the Herald.
The appellate court ruled on Monday that usage of the word “Allah” was not integral to the Christian faith and that allowing such usage would cause confusion in the Muslim community.
Datuk Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali, who chaired a three-men panel in the Court of Appeal, also said in the grounds of his judgment that allowing the Catholic Church to call God “Allah” would not be “conducive to the peaceful and harmonious tempo of life” in the Muslim-majority country.
Abdul Rahman similarly said that permitting Christians in the peninsula to describe their creator as “Allah” could cause disharmony.
“In any country, religious issues are always a very sensitive issue. It’s very dangerous. A small spark like this can create a lot of trouble... this is so close to the hearts and minds of the Muslims in the peninsula,” he said.
“According to the judge, it’s not fundamental to Christianity. This is where common sense is needed. If it’s not central, if it’s just peripheral, do you go all out, full blast, at the risk of destroying whatever we have? In the peninsula, it’s so out of place for them,” added the Kota Belud MP.
The 2009 High Court ruling, which found that the word “Allah” was not exclusive to Islam, had sparked a string of attacks against several houses of worship, including the firebombing of a church.
Shortly after the Court of Appeal ruling was released, a Muslim group called Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA) told Christians to emigrate if they could not accept the sovereignty of Islam and of the king in the country.
Sabah Umno deputy chief Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak said that such remarks were “uncalled for”.
“Based on our constitution, we have entrusted the judiciary to interpret the law. But if the respondents wish to appeal, we should respect their right to do so too,” Salleh told The Malay Mail Online.
“Regardless of the court decision, we should strive to maintain the fundamental peace and harmony that we’ve always enjoyed in Malaysia. Because this is the key to our success,” added the former Sabah chief minister.
The Catholic Church has said it will contest the Court of Appeal’s decision, pointing out that the ruling contradicts the Najib administration’s 10-point solution that was issued shortly before the Sarawak state election two years ago.
Two-thirds of Christians in Malaysia are Bumiputera and are largely based in Sabah and Sarawak, numbering at some 1.6 million.
They have been using Bahasa Malaysia and indigenous languages in their prayer services and in the Al-Kitab without incident for decades until recently, Christian leaders have said.
Sabah and Sarawak churches have slammed the court ruling as “insensitive” and “repugnant”, insisting that they would continue their age-old practice of calling God “Allah” in their worship.
