The Malaysian government has put a stop to a Catholic newspaper over the use of the word “Allah” in its Malay-language edition, the paper’s editor reported Thursday.
Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of The Herald weekly newspaper, said the government ordered the Malay edition to stop running until courts resolve a ban on the paper’s use of “Allah” to refer to God, according to the news site Malaysiakini.com.
Malaysia’s Home Ministry reportedly sent a letter saying the newspaper is only allowed to operate its English, Mandarin and Tamil editions. The Herald usually has four editions, including Malay.
“The prohibition amounts to persecution,” Andrew told The Associated Press. “It curtails our freedom of expression and diminishes our rights as citizens…. We are perplexed and we do not think that the prohibition is on solid legal ground.”
Andrew believes the ban is part of a larger government effort to restrict the newspaper, which is the main Roman Catholic weekly in Muslim-majority Malaysia. The newspaper had just renewed its license on Tuesday.
Last year, the newspaper had nearly lost its publishing license for using the word “Allah” as the translation for “God.” Authorities had contended the word “Allah” should only be used by Muslims.
“The constitution says Malay is the national language so why can’t we use the national language in Malaysia,” the paper’s editor told Agence France-Presse.
He noted that many Catholics in Malaysia are “bumiputera” or “son of the soil,” which refers to ethnic Muslim Malays and the indigenous inhabitants in peninsular Malaysia and on Borneo Island who are mostly Christians.
To ban the use of the Malay word for “God” does not make sense because a large portion of Catholics in the country are bumiputera who mainly speak Malay, Andrew argued.
“More than 50 percent of our congregation are bumiputera and two of our bishops are bumiputera,” the editor said.
Andrew said the newspaper sent a letter to the ministry on Friday to appeal the order. If there is no response within seven days or the decision is not retracted, the newspaper will consider taking the Malaysian government to court for violation of the rights of religious minorities.
The court decision on the “Allah” ban, meanwhile, will be decided in the courts next month, according to AP.
Malaysia, which is over 60 percent Muslim, has a long history of religious freedom problems. Several Christian converts from Islam have been denied the right to change their religion on their government identity card.
The government also restricted the Christian blockbuster hit “The Passion of Christ” to only Christian audiences, and Muslims in Malaysia had called for a ban on “Evan Almighty.”
In general, Islam enjoys special privileges in Malaysia as the dominant religion.
RSS
The Usage of the word "Allah is similar to Jesus saying "Eloh" which is Aramic, a language which is closely related to the Arabic, and both languages sound phonetically alike, so the Arabic Christians must have heared the Aramic pronouciation of Eloh and formed the "Allah".
Guys,
Check this out from an online Holy Bible in Bahasa Indonesia which is nearly the same as Bahasa Malay.
http://sabdaweb.sabda.org/search/?p=Allah
fom the Holy Bible in 'Terjemahan Baru' there is 3588 verse where there is reference to Allah, specifically God in Bahasa Bumiputera.
Personally I call Yahweh the most Holy One of Israel, 'Bapa' (Abba, Father) because we have been made righteous in front of God thru the blood of our risen Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.
On the other hand I agree the Malaysia court and government tried to interfere with the local Roman Catholic to increase control and a mean of persecuting those guys
msn
I agree that Christianity and Islam do not worship the same God and as far as the word (Allah) goes, listen to what Walter Martin said in his book The Kingdom of the Cults:
(Their religion was polytheistic and was related to the paganism of the ancient Semites. The beings it adored were in origin the inhabitants and patrons of single places, living in tress, fountains, and especially in sacred stones. There were some gods in the true sense (according to them), transcending in their authority the boundaries of purely tribal cults. The three most important were Manat, Uzza, and Allat. These three were themselves subordinate to a higher deity, usually called Allah) pg. 613.
(It is believed by some scholars that Allah, or al-Ilah (the god), can be traced to Ilah, the South Arabian moon god. Henotheism, or the worship of only one god while not denying the existence of other gods, may have existed in pre-Islamic society. The Quran speaks of hanifs, pre-Islamic Arab monotheists who were neither Christian nor Jewish. Extant evidence shows that Allah meant (the (one) God) for the many Christians, Jews, monophysites, and Nestorians who lived throughout the Arabian peninsula) pg. 614.
The real question is: why would any Christian want to use a name for God that is so closely related to pagan deities?
The word "Allah" only meant "Divine One" at the time of the early Christians. There was no other connotation. Mohammed spoke Arabic and therefore "allah" is the only word he would have used for God whether he had contact with Christians or not.
Today the word "allah" has for WESTERNERS a negative implication because we only think of Muslims, but if you ever go to the middle east you know that the only reason why it has today a Muslim inferance is because the vast majority of Arabic speakers are muslim.
Believer and Online, the word "Allah" is an arabic word for God or Divinity. Maybe it meant something else a long time ago, but at the time of Christ and thereafter(REMEMBER CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT)"Allah" only meant the one God.
Islam was started because of many Christians not being able, at the time, to explain how the Trinity works. Not surprisingly though given the time. So, Muslims thought we worshipped 3 Gods not one. Muslims always attested to their being only one God and that is where the comparisons end.
Islam is a reaction to not understanding the Trinity, and look how far they have fallen away from the TRUTH. They may worship the one God, but we have different understandings of the character of that one God so it is not the same.
It is very interesting, that "Allah" was used by the Chaldean Christians in expression of worship to God. Any other information given pertaining to this would be greatly appreciated. Also, Mohammah must of had some Christian Catholic understanding of God to use the "Allah" terminology within the Muslim faith.
online, my point exactly, why would the catholics have even used the term when you consider the very meaning of the name.
(Walter Martin's book, "Kingdom Of The Cults" talks to the founding of Islam to include several of the points made already)
Yes, for the actual meaning of the name Allah and its historical usage . . . see under the sub title: HISTORY . . . pages 613, 614.
Believer,
I agree with you. I was just making the point we Catholics coined the term "Allah" well before there were Muslims.
Not to mention that Mohammed is a false prophet and their is no more public revelation after the last Apostle died.
chris, but you do realize that if one does a study of the allah of the koran and the God of the Bible one will find two very different personalities, the one true God of the Bible and the false god of islam.
Again I say...
Silly Muslims Tricks are for kids! We should tell the Muslims to stop using the name "Allah" since we coined it in the first place!!! I think a nice royalty would be nice.
"You do not seem to realize that Allah is merely the word for God in the Arabic language, just like Deus in Latin, Gott in German, Dieu in French, and so on. (It means literally the Divinity—the only one that exists.) So it is that Arab Catholics worship Allah which means God. In all Catholic Bibles printed in Arabic, God is called Allah in both Old and New Testaments.
These bibles were produced and written 100-200 years before Islam.
The article read:
World
Allah was used by Arab Christians before Islam was founded
Malaysian Christians, in a statement, expressed deep disappointment and regret over the comment made by a local government minister in the prohibition non-Muslims from using the word ‘Allah’ in their news publication.
By: Christian Today Australia
Posted: Friday, 11 January 2008, 9:20 (EST)Font Scale:A A A
Malaysian Christians, in a statement, expressed deep disappointment and regret over the comment made by a local government minister in the prohibition non-Muslims from using the word ‘Allah’ in their news publication.
In the statement to the media, Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, the head of the Malaysian Christian Federation, said the term ‘Allah’ was used by Arab Christians, which pre-dated the founding of Islam, and added the ban was contravening the right to the freedom of religion as outlined in the Constitution.
"The word 'Allah' is a pre-Islamic word used by Arab Christians before Islam came into being," said Bishop Ing.
The word "Allah" is an arabic term for God. Middle easter Christians all used the word "Allah" for God from Iraq and all the Arab lands.
Catholic Christians such as the Assyrians used it as early as 180ad and the Chaldeans used it as well around 220ad.
http://au.christiantoday.com/article/allah-was-used-by-arab-christians-before-islam-was-founded/3707.htm
Walter Martin's book, "Kingdom Of The Cults" talks to the founding of Islam to include several of the points made already and I too am looking forward to hearing Chris share how catholics called God "allah" before the muslims did especially since I have never heard that before and many of you haven't either.
If this is true, I can see why the Malaysian Muslim wants to quiet the Christian usage of "Allah", so the public won't know the real origin of this name.
Did hear about the Pre-Islamic Arabs did believe in a moon God among a host of other Gods during the period of Jahiliya(period of darkness or ignorance).
"Allah" is the name of the Sabean's moon god.
Msnchris, that is interesting, didn't know about Catholics using the term "Allah" before the Muslims came int existence, please provide information on that please?????
"Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of The Herald weekly newspaper, said the government ordered the Malay edition to stop running until courts resolve a ban on the paper’s use of “Allah” to refer to God, according to the news site Malaysiakini.com. "
This is the real danger of Muslim run countries. The government gave the order to stop until it ran through the courts. Here in the USA they would have to get a court order.
Fortunately, they only stopped the edition of the paper which uses the term Allah. All the others are allowed to run.
god is god, no matter what name you put on him. .if all human kind is created thru his spirit ..............why ignore the essence of our common spirit for the sake of a name?
20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities,his eternal power and divine nature,have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
if all human kind knows god thru what he has made, why quibble over a name
romans 1:20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities,his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
if all human kind has the essence in him, and knows god thru what god has made.........why quibblle over a name
romans 1:20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
if all human kind has the essence in him, and knows god thru what god has made.........why quibblle over a name?
god is god, no matter what name you put on it.if all human kind is created thru his spirit ..............why ignore the essence for the sake of a name?
msnchris70,
>> Catholic Christians used the word "Allah" for God in the middle east 200 years before there was ever a muslim. <<
Okay, I'll admit that I don't know too much about Muslims. Can you please provide a reference to support this? Dates too?
I really don't believe that the use of the word Allah is at the heart of this issue.
It creates a way for Muslims to enforce control and make a clear distinction between being Muslim and being Christian.
Otherwise we have a gray area.
chris-
I say we let THEM keep it! XD
allah is not God.
Silly muslims "Tricks are for kids".
Catholic Christians used the word "Allah" for God in the middle east 200 years before there was ever a muslim.
We should restrict their ability to use this name since it is us Christians who coined it afterall.