I don’t know about “fighting” over it, but we certainly should maintain our (Christian) right to use it. If we didn’t, what would Arab Christians use, or Maltese? (since Maltese is a Semitic language ultimately descendant from Maghrebi Arabic, they use “Alla”).
No, it should be free for everyone to use if it is a natural part of their vocabulary, and that includes the Malay Christians (I think also Bahasa Indonesia has this word, doesn’t it, Swariffin?). I personally wouldn’t go around using it because I am not an Arab, but just the same I wouldn’t have any problem using it in a correct and respectful context. I mean, I have to use it and many expressions with it in my Arabic classes, because it is used so often in Arabic by Muslims and Christians alike. If I couldn’t use it, I would miss out on a big part of the cultural component of the language. So for some Muslim government to call that Christians shouldn’t use it…that’s just dumb, to me. The Christians know that they are not talking about Islamic concept of God when they use it! But they don’t have an alternative, so why shouldn’t they use it? To spare some over-sensitive government leaders’ feeling? What would the government rather have them use? “Jesus”? That would not be appropriate if they are refering to God the Father, or to the Holy Spirit. If any Muslim leader who calls for the “Allah ban” would take five seconds to learn about the most basic doctrine of Christianity, they would know that, so they would realize how stupid this demand is.
