Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, leader of the Upko political party in Sabah and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said the terminology is widely used in Indonesia and also in Arab countries by Christians.
'So it is a universal terminology used in the Christian world when they are praying in their vernacular language. There is no reason for the Home Ministry to continue harassing the Catholic Herald,' The Malaysian Insider reported him as saying.
His Cabinet colleague, Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, hit back at him last Saturday when he told Mingguan Malaysia: 'There are some non-Muslim leaders who are asking that permission be granted so that the word 'Allah' can be used, using Indonesia as an example.
'This is Malaysia. Do not equate us with another country. We are an Islamic country as stated in the Constitution,' he said, adding that there was a hidden agenda to use the word 'Allah' in the Herald, the Catholic publication.
Misquoted? Maybe. By the way, the report is from a Singaporean newspaper. I doubt any Malaysian newspaper would want to publish this, lest they want to lose Sabah and Sarawak in the next election.
So, if the word "Allah" becomes banned in Christian literature, you're gonna burn all the BM/Indon Bibles in Malaysia? You're gonna burn their songbooks and ban songs that contain "Allah"? You're gonna tear down signboards that contain the word, coz the word is now your copyright?
And you threaten your non-Muslim population with this?
'Don't play with fire and challenge the Muslims. We are willing to do anything to protect our religion,' he warned.
It never cease to amaze me how politicians take one or two sentence out of the Constitution/Law and stretch it as far as they like to justify their ideology.
Seriously, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, I don't want this guy to be my country's leader. And also the party that condones this kind of attitude.
4 comments:
I didnt know the Constitution said Malaysia is an Islamic country. I thought it said that Islam was the official religion for use in formal functions. Do I have the wrong info?
It's not even a malay-rooted word.. it's arab's term, so before 'they' really want to heat things up, they should atleast consult with their REAL Arab 'friend'. & as far as I'm concern and taught at U, Allah alone doesnt refers to their Allah. My lecturer repeatedly asked us to properly used Allah s.w.t if referring to their allah (or we won't get mark) and she was very-very open about this matter.
btw, does this mean Pst. J's 'meeting with the officials' haven't ended yet?
It's a bloody joke. It looks like UMNO muslims are very very insecure...
attitude: I am in power, I intepret Constitution/Law as I wish (that's how the whole Ketuanan stuff and BTN works).
Any body who raise a question, we'll label you "challeging Islam and Malay", "don't play with fire", "we do anything", whatever it means. We'll mobilise the mob, the BN youth, the police, the courts, the ACA to pin you down.
and so the critics are silenced, the bullies have their way, and have their pockets filled.
same UMNO stuffs.
and Sabahan/Sarawakians give them full support.
disclaimer: above thoughts are merely from my human nature talking
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