Allah: Bigotry and the Need for Rationalization

A particular quote from the YDP Agong over the recent Allah issue particularly annoyed me:

“To ensure peace and harmony among the followers of different religions, the meaning and reference to ‘Allah’ in the general context should conform to the description fixed by Islam because this practice has all this while been accepted by Malaysians of other faiths,” said Tuanku Mizan.

Tuanku is either completely unaware of the etymology of the word Allah (one would think it would be required of his position) or confusing it with racial issues. It was only in 2007 that the Home Ministry decided to make Malaysia the only country to outlaw the word from being used in any non-Islamic context. Never mind that Allah is an Arabic word not a Malay one, and for centuries even predating the founding of Islam, Christians and Jews have used the word to refer to God.

For anyone with any semblance of knowledge about how Christians translate “God”, Tuhan is not an acceptable alternative. Tuhan is an impersonal form of the word “God”, while Allah is the personal term.

Up to 2007 no one here had any problem with the use of the word. PAS has no problem with it. Muslims in the Middle East have no problem with it. Our neighbour Indonesia – which has a 86% Muslim population, was home to the most wanted terrorist in SEA, and had two hotels bombed last year – are having their two largest Islamic organizations tell their adherents not to be like us!

Presented with these facts, the Home Ministry fell back on its old standby, the “we are different” routine. In the past they used it to tell the West “we are different” to justify human rights issues, now they’re telling other Islamic nations “we are different” as well!

“Be fair, you have to compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges. Our landscape is different from other countries,” he said.

“Malays here are different from other countries. The landscape here is different from Indonesia so we can’t compare.”

(emphasis added)

The slip here is telling. Did the official say “Muslims here are different“? No! He said “Malays here are different“. Yes, we are different! We are more bigoted than any other country, using the potent mix of the two greatest dividers – race and religion.

The latter picture isn’t from the Allah protests but is strikingly similar. (1st pic from The Edge, 2nd pic from Malaysiakini)

Why is the government nurturing fundamentalists who claim they are sensitive, easily confused/seduced,  pantang dicabar etc? As much as they try to wiggle out of it Najib and Hishamuddin can’t take back the fact that they encouraged them to “express their views”. Their responses also speak for themselves. While quick to offer compensation and denounce the “extremists”, they have not said anything about respecting the court’s decision, or reach out for reconciliation and take a stand like PAS has done.

I disagree strongly with the sentiment that religion is “outside the law” or is a “sensitive issue” that cannot be decided upon by the courts. This is not to say that our laws are perfect, far from it, but it is precisely by drawing up laws to deal against issues like this that we can hope to achieve a consensus, rather than having the people with the most power (or claimed sensitivities and capacity for confusion) steamroll through. The absence of separation between church and state in our justice system also needs to be addressed.The judge at the Dover trial for example, was a Republican and a Lutheran, and yet he ruled against the creationists, going by the law.

For all Anas Zubedy’s encouragement of tolerance and trust in his blog post, he misses the point entirely: There has been as much proof that the usage of the word Allah confuses Muslims as there has been voters confused by indelible ink and Muslims baptized by Christians,  i.e. zero. It is a completely manufactured issue.

As much as the moderates can show tolerance, giving out flowers and offering to patrol churches; and the other side continues how they fail at making bombs, there is still the issue itself at hand.

The Catholic Herald should absolutely hold its ground and not reach out for a “compromise” which will only encourage more and more demonstrations when the next religious issue comes around. There are no two ways about it. Yes, the Court of Appeal will probably continue its streak of overthrowing anti-government judgements passed by the higher courts, but the basis of judgement will be there for all to see. The Nut Graph has an interesting bit about what happened the last time the Herald compromised on this and settled for “promises” from the then PMs:

“(Former Prime Minister Tun Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad’s) position was if Christians use the word ‘Allah’ among ourselves, sell our bibles in Christian bookshops, and indicate it’s a Christian publication, then that was fine,” said Shastri.

“Mahathir and [Tun Abdullah Ahmad] Badawi both assured the Christian community that it would not be an issue [using 'Allah'] within our community.”

…

Shastri said this understanding with the government broke down when Catholic paper Herald was banned from using “Allah” by the Home Ministry in their Bahasa Malaysia publication in 2007.

“The Herald had no other choice. The only way open was to take the matter to court,” he said.

And the most important thing is that come the next election, we know what we need to do to start breaking this institutionalized bigotry.

Related posts:

1. Inaccurate and sensational?The clown we have for an Information Minister strikes again: “I hope local journalists will not dance to the tune...
2. Malaysia says “no” to Syariah?The only time Malaysia seems to get on Digg/Slashdot/Google News these days seems to be when people are shaking their...
3. Nope, Not Secular – NajibThe Sun and Malaysiakini have the news (and of course, LKS his opinion): Najib declares that Malaysia is an Islamic...
4. Another Case of Religion Uniting FamiliesFrom the Star, last Wednesday, on the case of Raimah Bibi and her husband M. Marimuthu: The husband, M. Marimuthu,...
5. Oh How The Mighty FallDr. Mahathir says it again [Malaysian Insider]: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has told non-Malays that they should stop questioning the...

Tags: allah, bigotry