What shocked me instead, was the irresponsible liberty he assumed in presenting his ideal of the world, as what the world actually is. “The majority of world Muslims, including Muslim Arabs, Muslim Africans, Muslim Indonesians and Muslim Malaysians have no problem with the use of Allah by Christians living amidst them for centuries” he boldly declares. Says who, Dr Chen? It makes sense for Arab Christians to use that word because, being native Arabic speakers, “Allah” becomes a generic term for God. But outside the Arab world, for example in the English-speaking world, “Allah” is specific to Muslims and Islam. Dr Chen’s failure to acknowledge this shows that he is either ignorant or disingenuous in his arguments. His confidence in proclaiming that the majority of Malaysian Muslims “have no problem” with the issue shows he is either out of touch or, if one is cynical, that he is simply repeating a lie in the hope that it will eventually pass off as a truth. Either way, this behaviour is inexcusable for a national politician.
Dr Chen, ever the politician, certainly knows the power of repetition, and he doesn’t refrain from using it. “PM Najib (sic) open support for UMNO’s retrogressive stand against the use of Allah by Christians shows that his 1Malaysia…will once again fail to deliver his promises to the people”. This man, DAP’s appointed life adviser, takes it upon himself to label it “retrogressive” to give himself a monopoly over what is right and wrong. And he commits this again thus: “PM Najib (sic) open support for UMNO’s repressive policies will bring bring (sic) serious consequences”. There it is again, in a slightly altered form. He uses these two very decisive and morally-righteous terms even when the issue is actually morally-ambiguous. Repeat! and they will follow, seems to be his weapon of choice in disseminating half-cooked propaganda.
Indeed, Dr Chen has a soft spot for blindly following. “It looks like that (sic) UMNO’s stand against the use of Allah by Christians is contrary to the thinking and practices by Muslims in the Middle East, Africa and Indonesia”. Oh, so now we’re expected to follow whatever it is people are doing overseas? Since when did Muslims in those parts of the world become role models in the Islamic world? Bear in mind, that he has not even bothered to conclusively prove how widespread the use of Allah by Christians is in those areas, if at all.
Dr Chen feels that opposition to the use of “Allah” by Christians somehow violates religious freedom and the concept of 1Malaysia. The fact is, it does not. We can be united as a country while still observing our separate religious and cultural practices. I don’t have to wear a cross, just as a Christian doesn’t have to fast during Ramadan, for the sake of being one united harmonious country. Religious freedom without respect for religious sensitivities and consideration for the religious make-up, heritage and character of our country is simply making a mockery of the term. It is bemusing that Dr Chen Man Hin has the cheek to pass off his sloppy arguments as reasoned debate. It is shameful that the DAP, a national party which purports to serve the interests of all Malaysians, fails to understand the essence of this issue.
cay maru
January 12, 2010
I followed with interest the newspaper reports and your articles on the recent debate over the use of the word “Allah” by The Herald. I applaud your comments because you have managed to explain clearly without malice the reasons behind why Muslims in Malaysia disagreed with the decision by the court.
It is not about making a fuss over some silly issue or the Malays trying to claim that the word “Allah” is theirs alone. All right thinking Muslims in Malaysia will not condone to any inappropriate actions taken by some Muslims in our country who feel that they had a right to take matters into their own hands. We all want to be able to live together in peace and harmony regardless of race or religion.
I believe the current chaos easily can be avoid if The Herald just use the Malay translation of God that is “Tuhan” or seek the opinion of religious heads in the country first. If they have any real sense of responsibility towards the nation, they will not want to create unnecessarily tension and unrest between Muslims and Non-Muslims. The same goes to Muslims who should take into consideration the sentiments of Non-Muslims first before using any words that are deem unfit or can cause an unhealthy argument and chaos among the different race in our country.
kampunghouse
January 12, 2010
I concur with your assertion. It’s not about ownership of the word, but rather its usage. No community can “own” a word, but if “Allah” is used outside of the Islamic context it distorts the sanctity which the Malaysian Muslim community has reserved for one of the 99 names of God.
keropok
March 16, 2010
dear kamponghouse,
you seem like a pretty smart fella. quite articulate i might add. but with due respect, i disagree.
i am a Malay/Muslim, and i would be part of that *gasp* group that is completely comfortable with Christians, and anybody else … really, to call their Man in the Sky, by the name of Allah.
Language is so dynamic and fluent throughout history and culture, so i have to ask – how and when is it ever appropriate amongst us to say to another group – “no, you can’t use that word because its already reserved for my community”. i really hope you’re not going back to this confusion/conversion argument – because that’s another issue completely.
the usage, as you described of a word, also changes over time. our friends in Sabah & Sarawak didn’t choose to use that word out of spite to us know-it-all Peninsula folks hundreds of years ago – it was because the language they received from the kitabs in Indonesia were written as so. I assume the Indonesians used Allah, because it came from somewhere else as well, and so on and so forth – going all the way back to the Muslim empires, and going back further. where do you wish to draw the line? oh, i see: would you like to stop when Allah was the highest pagan god – the god of Rain – i think prior to that, they called him Zeus.
If Islam is as universal as we so loudly proclaim, why is it that Malay Muslims are so special compared to any other Muslim in the world? why is the argument filled with insecurity?
apart from wondering how we deal with chaos, the means in which we achieve peace, understanding is of utmost importance. it is to educate that yes, the word Allah – is an arabic word. it means God – no more, and no less.
I completely agree with Dr Chen’s statements. Yes, he has a political slant in his opinion, but is it truly as grave as the inertia of Najib’s stance on the matter, of which is to conveniently allow the extremists to dominate the crux of the debate with more and more confusion and molotov cocktails. That is completely and utterly irresponsible compared to Dr Chen’s statement.
Salam.
kampunghouse
March 18, 2010
Thank you for your insight. I believe comments such as yours help us to understand the issue better because it’s only through vigorous debate that we discover the truth.
At the heart of the issue is the sense of sacredness in which Muslims – Malays or otherwise – regard the 99 names of God, of which ‘Allah’ is among the most frequently cited. There is a growing tendency to take this matter lightly, exemplified by casual references such as your ‘Man in the Sky’. Granted, it is not particularly original, but for people who take such matters seriously, such blasé referencing is contemptible. In the same vein, unrestricted use of the word ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims who may not have the same sense of sacredness attached to that particular word is worrying.
I agree with you that the usage of a word changes over time. What we should be focused on is its usage in the present form, not the past. Presently, ‘Allah’ is used exclusively within the Islamic context, and it should remain so. Why should we imitate the practices of past peoples when we are now more enlightened?
It is actually quite common for certain words to be reserved for certain communities. I don’t see a problem with that. This is why Yahweh is used exclusively among Jews to describe God, and why Jesus is used within the Christian context while Nabi Isa is used among Muslims, even though both names point to the same person.
Your assertion that Allah “means God – no more, and no less” is incorrect. This is a misconception carried by people like Chen Man Hin, who don’t know any better, and parroted by Muslims who should know better. The word for God in Arabic that is equivalent to the Malay word Tuhan is Ilah; Allah is a name for God, used specifically within the Islamic context. That is why in the shuhadah we say ‘La ilaha il-Allah’, “there is no Ilah but Allah” (there is no God but Allah). It is unfortunate that many Muslims (myself included) are or have been ignorant in this regard, and it is even more unfortunate that some Muslims, in their need to appease critics, blindly follow other people’s interpretation of a word and a concept that has no relevance to them. This is why it is important to ask “Why do you want to use the word Allah in the first place?” but instead, some such as yourself prefer to go easy and just ask “Why not?”.
Islam’s universality and Malays’ cultural and religious rights are two separate things. Malays in Malaysia have certain privileges, just as a Syrian has certain privileges in Syria or a Turk in Turkey. These rights are conferred by virtue of their majority status in those countries; it’s got nothing to do with religion. Similarly, Anglo-Saxon Christians in Australia, UK and USA enjoy certain religious and cultural privileges because of their demographic and historical dominance in those countries. If you really believe Malays are so special compared to other Muslims in the world, I would suggest you visit countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Qatar to compare the special treatment they receive there. Better yet, visit France, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, India, Western China, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia to see the “special treatment” Muslims (or in the latter 3 countries, Malays) in those parts of the world receive.
Keropok
March 20, 2010
easy, blase, ignorant Muslim here again. hi.
i would love to have a carefully worded response crafted, but i think the crux of my argument has little resonance with you, while you sway into issues on cultural and religious rights and treatments of other Muslim communities. its lends a realpoltik element to your case, but i dont feel it adds any substance to what our discussion is about.
will just look at what you’ve said and leave some comments:
“The word for God in Arabic that is equivalent to the Malay word Tuhan is Ilah; Allah is a name for God, used specifically within the Islamic context. That is why in the shuhadah we say ‘La ilaha il-Allah’, “there is no Ilah but Allah” (there is no God but Allah).”
- hmm, i’m no linguist, so i’ll be careful here. I am quite aware that there are linguistic elements that are in play with regards to your example of the shahadah. if i can recall from my Islamic studies class, it involves the contraction of al- and ʼilāh in forming the term Allāh (“the god”, masculine form). so in that sense Allahu Akbar (God is Great) seems to support my suggestion that the term Allah equates to God in the Arabic language.
“At the heart of the issue is the sense of sacredness in which Muslims – Malays or otherwise – regard the 99 names of God, of which ‘Allah’ is among the most frequently cited.”
- again, your suggestion of my ignorance is welcome. i am no scholar. BUT. Allah is the most frequently cited because it means God. Of the 99 ‘names’ of God, from #1 of Ar-Rahman (All Beneficent, The Most Merciful in Essence, The Compassionate, The Most Gracious) to #99 As-Sabur (The Patient, The Timeless) – these are ATTRIBUTES that we give to Allah, rather than what we call or refer to Him as – when referring to the term ‘name’. so Allah ar-Rahman = God who is All Beneficient, The most merciful, etc… But maybe because its Islam, my interpretation as a heathen is inadequate. i will leave it to the ‘enlightened’ ones to make sense of this complicated matter.
“I agree with you that the usage of a word changes over time. What we should be focused on is its usage in the present form, not the past. Presently, ‘Allah’ is used exclusively within the Islamic context, and it should remain so. Why should we imitate the practices of past peoples when we are now more enlightened?”
- I say this respectfully, but this is ignorance at its best. i think you mean, exclusively in the Arabic context (of which i assume, Malays sometimes think they’re Arabs – so, that’s why we’re here. that can be forgiven!). So, when my Coptic Christian friend, Erdem in Egypt as of 2008 when i last saw him, says “inshaallah” – he is a just a radical variable of the norm? Let us admit that the Arabic influence (be it in language and culture) has spread its wings over the centuries and influenced other countries and their respective cultures and languages. the influence of Islam, and the lingua franca that accompanies it, of course plays a role – but one must be cognizant of the differences between the language the religion was introduced in and the use of language across different cultures and societies. The growth of the religion has grown out of its Arabic ancestors, and perhaps that is its intention as we’ve seen today. the key stakeholders and ‘protectors’ of the religion which claim exclusivity over it are superficially hanging on to this idea, because it seems apart from oil, that’s all they have to claim to fame. that is their trump card to make sure the masses get riled up so that the spotlight goes back to them.
- you say “imitate the practices of past peoples when we are more enlightened” – in relation to the issue in Malaysia, this entrenches this warped belief that there is something exclusive about the Malay Muslim relationship with Islam. its like a Malaysian Islam. there is just…. Islam. it has nothing to do about being enlightened. well, YOU have been enlightened to this issue while people of different faiths and cultures have been using it without fear or fervour for the past 300 years (and more), be it in the Malay archipelago or in the arab peninsula, up till this day. The term Allah has been used by various peoples across the centuries INCLUDING THE PRESENT DAY, to signify their belief in their Man in the Sky.
On a final note: this debate can comfortably be a theological one, as well as a political issue. of the two, i really am not concerned about the former, because it usually remains in the classroom, in the madrasah, and it involves one-upsmanship on academia. how exciting.
but on a political level, the way this debate has been so irresponsibly used and toyed around with by the ruling party will is spreading cancer towards Malays who have no time for rational and reasoned discourse. Adding fuel to the fire by branding the likes of Chen Man Hin as an ignorant old man (who happens to be of an ethnic group, that for some reason, makes Malays terribly insecure) – THAT is my an issue when intelligent persons like yourself are directing your grouses towards the wrong issue and the wrong persons – in the context of the greater scheme of things.
—
kampunghouse
March 20, 2010
It’s convenient to blame the ruling party for just about anything that goes on in Malaysia these days. But in this instance, I don’t believe the outrage is fueled by UMNO propaganda; it stems largely from the fear that the message relayed from Allah through the Quran may be corrupted if non-Muslims are allowed to preach their own message while claiming that it, too, comes from the same Allah. This is a valid fear and no amount of pooh-poohing will make it any less real.
There are Malaysians/Malays/Muslims, like myself, who believe that the only way to preserve the authenticity of the Islamic message is to reserve the use of ‘Allah’ strictly within the Muslim perspective. This is especially important because Arabic is not a spoken language in Malaysia, and ‘Allah’ has always been associated exclusively with Islam. Conversely, there are those such as yourself who are not convinced that this is so. As humans we defend what we believe is right, but the true knowledge lies with God and ultimately it is up to God to decide and deliver His judgment on His creatures.
Keropok
March 22, 2010
Dear Kamponghouse,
on corrupting the message while claiming that it comes from the same Allah – nobody is saying or doing that; and if they are, they should be rightly denoucned. But, for those god-fearing Christians, they believe in their God, but call Him, Allah. the application of the Muslim Allah is not play in their beliefs, but that of the Christian God. We cannot presume that the issue of which god should/shouldn’t be called Allah is exclusively related to the issue of conversion/apostasy. is it a contributing factor, possibly – i admit that. but distinctively, they are 2 separate issues in how it should be handled.
In some cases, as somebody who is sympathetic to the cause of the country’s opposition, yes, it is terribly convenient to blame the ruling party on anything that goes wrong (one must admit, it is also much funnier because they keep tripping on their own feet).
But when you say the outrage is not fueled by UMNO propaganda, I am genuinely stumped. it makes me wonder if we are referring to the same issue of the same country. it makes me wonder if you are aware of the vile that the Malay-language papers like Utusan and Berita Harian print on a daily basis. The same newspapers that on a Monday will use the Allah issue to relate to apostasy/conversion issues, where it will also (on a Tuesday) applaud the authorities for demolishing a Hindu Temple and justify the kicking and dragging of a cow’s head, equating it to being brave defenders of Malays/Islam. Seeing that the paper is owned by UMNO (this is not an accusation, again – just a plain cold fact) – i hope you see where i’m coming from.
I appreciate the brief debate we’ve had, differences notwithstanding. I’ve taken something away from this, i’m not sure what, but i’m glad we had this brief conversation.
Salam.
p.s. i noticed your posts on the Royals; heaven forbid, we may have something in common!… maybe
james
December 17, 2011
why use allah in the bible..? What benefits can the bible gain by using allah name. Since. bible translation in malay bahasa baku why NOT using TUHAN in the bible?..its don’t make sense to use ALLAH in malay version bible unless there is a crusade to christiansed malay muslim community!!! Its very obvious instead using Tuhan..why use Allah? Off course muslim are concerned about this..What happen if bible are translated in using lunatic words to express your god as PIG!!