Malaysian court rules use of 'Allah' exclusive to Muslims

[jimkhong]

And I don’t know about Arab Christians not using “Allah” prior
to Islam, but I sure know that they didn’t use “Deo” or “Theo,”
what else would they have used?

Actually, they probably did. The people who are Arab Christians today were likely not Arab Christians before Islam. They were Coptic or Syriac or Melkite or African Christians, using Coptic, Syriac, Greek or Latin respectively. It was only much later when Arab became the language of those countries, they became Arab Christians.

There were probably some Arab Christians before Islam in the sense of Christians in the Arab Peninsular, but they were probably traders, whose liturgical languages were not Arab and as such, had no need to refer to God in Arab language.

Pre-Islam Arabs probably used Allah to refer to their god.

 

[jimkhong]

From Reuters:
A Malaysian court ruled on Monday that a Christian newspaper may not use the word “Allah” to refer to God, a landmark decision on an issue that has fanned religious tension and raised questions over minority rights in the mainly Muslim country.

The unanimous decision by three Muslim judges in Malaysia’s appeals court overturned a 2009 ruling by a lower court that allowed the Malay-language version of the newspaper, The Herald, to use the word Allah - as many Christians in Malaysia say has been the case for centuries.

“The usage of the word Allah is not an integral part of the faith in Christianity,” chief judge Mohamed Apandi Ali said in the ruling. “The usage of the word will cause confusion in the community.”

The political ruling*
This ruling is political in nature. In the immediate term, the ruling party (the secular party of Muslim Malays, who make up 50% of the population) is in the midst of their party election It comes 5 months after the ruling coalition (dominated by this ruling party) dubiously won the general election with 47% of the popular votes against the opposition’s 51%. It was rather silly in my view to schedule the court ruling in the week between the two weekends when the party elections are held (the youth & women’s wings held their elections last weekend and the Vice-Presidents & central committee have theirs the coming weekend).

Islam (forming 60% of the population) has been hijacked by politicians in Malaysia hoping to stay in power by proving themselves more Islamic than their opponents. Interestingly, the Islamic party in Malaysia belong to an opposition coalition that supports the right of non-Muslim to use the word Allah. Even Muslim clergy who uses reason and evidence will come to more reasoned conclusions than secular Muslim politicians.

The reason for the ruling is ostensibly because Muslims can get confused over Christians’ use of the term. This insults the intelligence of Muslims and questions Islamic faith education in Malaysia. When I went to school, I studied about Prophet Jesus in our history books (written by Muslims) but I did not get confused - so why should Muslims?

Unfortunately, the independence of the judiciary in Malaysia also has been gradually eroded over the last 30 years. The court for this ruling is the Court of Appeal, which is the tier most beholden to the government as they await their promotion to the Federal Court. The lower court ruled in favour of Christians back in 2008 but the judge was a Christian and the government appealed. The Church will be appealing this ruling up to the Federal court, where a deal is likely to be reached where the Muslim ruling party will give in some areas to allow all sides to claim something - after the ruling party politics are out of the way of course.
*
Islam in Malaysia*
Malaysian Muslims are by nature a tolerant lot as the religion was brought here by trade not conquest. Until the 80’s Muslim women do not wear veils in public and the figure-flattering outfit of the Singapore girl (Singapore Airlines) was the traditional costume of Muslim Malays. The turning point was the Iranian revolution, which led to a swing to conservative mores. Today, I know of many girls pressured to wear the veil by their mothers, who never wore it in their days.

The whole conservative swing was also hijacked by domestic political forces. That makes it difficult for the more liberal progressive wing of Muslim Malays to resist the social, political and religious pressures pushing for a more conservative Islam seeking to put right perceived past and present oppression of Muslims.

I also found it disappointing that many educated Muslims seems to stop thinking rationally when religion is mentioned. For instance, in Malaysia, you cannot check out pork products (even if it is canned) out of the normal supermarket checkout but must use a non-Halal checkout. These are educated Muslims (not educated in madrassah, I must add).

Malaysia is a multi-racial and multi-religious country. I see us as a melting pot experiment in a similar way that America is except that our solution is different. In America, all cultures are subsumed into an American identity with the hyphens becoming adjectives if not incidental but contributing to the American identity. In Malaysia, all constituent cultures remain distinct. It has its appeal but the body of common values making up the national consensus is rather much smaller than in the US.
*
My prayers for the future*
Still, a consensus is growing among the more educated non-establishment Muslim middle-class that the idea of Muslim victimhood and the need to protect Islam is inappropriate in a modern mulit-religious society. After the government lost the High Court case permitting Christians to use the term “Allah” in 2008, there was a few isolated amatuerish attempts at firebombing churches, which did no significant damage. Muslims were united in condemning them and the government moved quickly to clamp down on them. I am proud to say that Christians leaders came out to forgive the firebombers in Christian terms.

While the situation the world over is bleak today regarding political Islam, I believe that Christians responding in Jesus’ language of mercy will draw an appropriate response from the more orthodox mainstream Muslim who worship Allah, all-merciful all compassionate. We need to give them support in their struggles againsts those who have hijacked, usurped and abused their religion. Condemning all Muslims as if they all share a single monolithic interpretation of Islamic identity perpetuated by a minority, can only lead to a reaction as blind as the condemnations that provoked it. Even in the midst of our pain today.

 

[CatholicHockey7]

Actually Islam says God has 99 names.

El, Eloah, El Echad, El Shaddai, El Rachum, El Elyon, El Olam, El Yisrael, Hai, Elohe, El Gibbor, El Berith, Elohim, Yahweh, Adonai, Yahweh Sabaoth, Immanuel, Yirch, El Roi.

These are all names the Jews had for the ONE true God. Just because you have multiple names does not mean you are multiple people.

Also, I want to point out the relationship between Arabic and Hebrew. Both are semetic languages with common roots. As you can see above, there are many words in Hebrew for God and many are similar to the Arabic Allah.

When you compare French, Spanish and Italian and find similar words they rarely mean different things. Why is it so hard for people to accept that this is the case in other languages too?

 

[JHow]

While the situation the world over is bleak today regarding political Islam, I believe that Christians responding in Jesus’ language of mercy will draw an appropriate response from the more orthodox mainstream Muslim who worship Allah, all-merciful all compassionate. We need to give them support in their struggles againsts those who have hijacked, usurped and abused their religion. Condemning all Muslims as if they all share a single monolithic interpretation of Islamic identity perpetuated by a minority, can only lead to a reaction as blind as the condemnations that provoked it. Even in the midst of our pain today.

Your post is very interesting. The picture you paint is if a political Islam that is increasingly intolerant. We in the states are constantly warned not to “condemn all Muslims”, but since you pose this as a political problem, the missing piece of information is what proportion of Muslims are the tolerant sort, and exactly how do we communicate with them? If they are not free to raise their voices against an injustice (like pressure to veil, for instance) shouldn’t we be the ones to speak out against it? Here it seems there is pressure not to notice Muslim intolerance.

 

[Judas_Thaddeus]

…Pre-Islam Arabs probably used Allah to refer to their god.

Not too sure, they did have Hubal, Al-Uzza, Al-Malik, Al-Uqaisir, etc, but I (PERSONALLY)
would need to see scholarly sources suggesting that any of these deities were identified as
“Allah” to their corresponding tribes. Muhammad’s tribe, for example, worshiped Al-Uzza. I
can say almost for certain that they never used “Allah” to refer to that goddess (nor as Allat).

 

[Reuben_J]

The ruling is a victory for Christians who object to CCC 841.

 

[MorEphrem]

Fine by me, Malaysia is in the territorial jurisdiction of the Syriac Church technically. They can start using Aloho.

And to the incessant bickering they went on for two pages, Allah is just Al Ilah. There’s no other way to render it - the alif simply gets a sukkun on it as a matter of ease of vocalization. Even the East Syriac cognate, which predates the Arabic, demonstrates it’s simply grammatical and not inherently Muslim (ES: Alaha, Alah in the absolute form).

 

[jimkhong]

Your post is very interesting. The picture you paint is if a political Islam that is increasingly intolerant. We in the states are constantly warned not to “condemn all Muslims”, but since you pose this as a political problem, the missing piece of information is what proportion of Muslims are the tolerant sort, and exactly how do we communicate with them? If they are not free to raise their voices against an injustice (like pressure to veil, for instance) shouldn’t we be the ones to speak out against it? Here it seems there is pressure not to notice Muslim intolerance.

In Malaysia, based on surveys done, I would estimate about 70% to be tolerant sort. It doesn’t mean the rest are intolerant but they tend to be triumphalist Muslims or insecure Muslims.

The former is actually quite rare in mainstream Islam as Islam has the concept of God sending 144,000 hidden prophets to evangelise the world. When a Muslim encounters a new religion, he is obligated to review it to see if it orginates from one of the hidden prophets - in that sense, we are all evaluated to be Muslims, with a few exceptions. We end up having as difficult a inter-religious dialogue with triumphalist Muslims as Catholics have with SSPX.

More common are insecure Muslims, who hearken back to the glory days of the Islamic caliphate. They tend to see a religion under seige but often lack the capability to do much about it. Any action they take are likely to be localised (eg., demos, roits) and are easily contained by a determined government.

The rump of the remainder is actually quite small in number but they are angry enough to do something about it, irrational enough to concern us and smart enough (not necessarily educated) to make a difference. We don’t know how many but boy, they make 95% of the noise. This is the bunch that the ruling party in Malaysia use to do their dirty work. But like Pakistan’s use of the Taliban, it could well the uncontrollable tiger that bites them. So, all over the world, this is the bunch to worry about.
*
In America*
In America, you have the advantage of a national consensus on what constitute American values. This differs from Europe where the welcoming host culture is now waking up to the fact that their tolerance was not sufficient and there remain a sizeable contingent of unassimilated children of Muslim immigrants who do not share their national values.

If you start to recognise that Islam is not monotlithic, you can start by talking with mainstream Muslim groups, most of whom share your American values. These talking, at formal and at personal levels, should underline your shared values. Once they know you are seeking to understand and not condemn (currently, they remain suspicious of American society’s acceptance of their identity as Muslims), they may be ready to share their concerns with you over reigning in their co-religionists.

I believe the mosque to be built at Ground Zero is Sufi, a strand of contemplative Islam with a long tradition of inter-religious dialogue. Their origins in Coptic monasticism also mean they have a lot in common to talk to Catholic-Orthodox-Anglican-Lutheran Christianity. Though a drawback is that Sunnis tend to be wary of them because of their very different way of being Muslim, they are still a good place to start.

God bless all children of Abraham.

 

[malphono]

Maybe I’m just missing something here, but while I don’t know the language at all, I do know that the word “allah” is certainly not of Malay origin. It’s a generic Arabic word that has been co-opted as a proper name by a certain religion. To put the matter to rest, is there no other word in Malay that could be used?

If not, perhaps the local Christians would do well to import a word from another language, just as the other religion did. From English? Chinese? Whatever, it doesn’t matter which language, even the Heberw “Elohim” or simply “El” would work. Any imported word would have the advantage of avoiding usual tripe from that other religion while conveying what needs to be conveyed.

Just my unsolicited :twocents: and now I’m out of this thread.

 

[MartinJordan]

What do you expect when the ruling party rally several months ago,they shouted out “Islam, Islam, Islam!”?

And last month at the general UN Assembly,the PM of Malaysia preached “Islam might collapse from within”?

MJ

 

[jimkhong]

Maybe I’m just missing something here, but while I don’t know the language at all, I do know that the word “allah” is certainly not of Malay origin. It’s a generic Arabic word that has been co-opted as a proper name by a certain religion. To put the matter to rest, is there no other word in Malay that could be used?

If not, perhaps the local Christians would do well to import a word from another language, just as the other religion did. From English? Chinese? Whatever, it doesn’t matter which language, even the Heberw “Elohim” or simply “El” would work. Any imported word would have the advantage of avoiding usual tripe from that other religion while conveying what needs to be conveyed.

Just my unsolicited :twocents: and now I’m out of this thread.

You are right that the word Allah predates the establishment of the Malay language.

There is another word in Malay that the goverment would like us to use but we have translated that word as ‘Lord’ and as such it would be nonsensical for us to have phrases in Bible like “God God” when we mean “Lord God”.

The first Malay language Bible was issued in early 17th century, and they have been using Allah ever since. Indonesian Bibles, which is also in the same language, also use Allah. For that matter, Sikh scriptures also use Allah.

The problem is not one of linguistics or theology but one of politics. The non-Muslim community as a whole (40% of the population) oppose this infringement on our religious freedom to define our own religion in our own language according to our own understanding of our own theology. All non-Muslim religious leaders in Malaysia as well as the Islamic political party have been consistent in the insistence on our constinutional rights.

The basis for the ruling by the court of Appeal (all three judges on the bench being Malay Muslims) are as follows:

1 There could be a threat to national security - which is belied by the fact that the original ruling by the lower court in our favour in 2008 did not result in any significant trouble on the streets.

2 Muslims could be confused by the use of the word Allah - which questions the efficacy of Islamic faith education and the Malay Muslim’s confidence in their own understanding of their faith. No such concern has been expressed by non-Malay Muslims.

3 Christians could be confused and need to distinguish the Trinitarian Christian God from the one single Muslim God. - no comment is necessary from me on this forum.

We will be appealing this decision and continue to fight for religious rights for all. Please join in praying for us and others like us in the world.

 

[MartinJordan]

You are right that the word Allah predates the establishment of the Malay language.

There is another word in Malay that the goverment would like us to use but we have translated that word as ‘Lord’ and as such it would be nonsensical for us to have phrases in Bible like “God God” when we mean “Lord God”.

The first Malay language Bible was issued in early 17th century, and they have been using Allah ever since. Indonesian Bibles, which is also in the same language, also use Allah. For that matter, Sikh scriptures also use Allah.

The problem is not one of linguistics or theology but one of politics. The non-Muslim community as a whole (40% of the population) oppose this infringement on our religious freedom to define our own religion in our own language according to our own understanding of our own theology. All non-Muslim religious leaders in Malaysia as well as the Islamic political party have been consistent in the insistence on our constinutional rights.

The basis for the ruling by the court of Appeal (all three judges on the bench being Malay Muslims) are as follows:

1 There could be a threat to national security - which is belied by the fact that the original ruling by the lower court in our favour in 2008 did not result in any significant trouble on the streets.

2 Muslims could be confused by the use of the word Allah - which questions the efficacy of Islamic faith education and the Malay Muslim’s confidence in their own understanding of their faith. No such concern has been expressed by non-Malay Muslims.

3 Christians could be confused and need to distinguish the Trinitarian Christian God from the one single Muslim God. - no comment is necessary from me on this forum.

We will be appealing this decision and continue to fight for religious rights for all. Please join in praying for us and others like us in the world.

Thanks for the above concise but clear explanation. (Especially point 2 and 3)

I shall be praying that the Federal court will take this case and reverse the decision. Let common sense and religious freedom rule.

MJ

 

[dronald]

I’m interested to know what this means for Christians. For example, if Christians in Malaysia say, “Allah” referring to the God of Christianity (I feel weird saying that) will they be arrested?

 

[MartinJordan]

I’m interested to know what this means for Christians. For example, if Christians in Malaysia say, “Allah” referring to the God of Christianity (I feel weird saying that) will they be arrested?

Good point.

That said, we as Christians should NEVER be afraid. We have to take the suffering and offer it to God.

MJ

 

[jimkhong]

I’m interested to know what this means for Christians. For example, if Christians in Malaysia say, “Allah” referring to the God of Christianity (I feel weird saying that) will they be arrested?

The short answer is no. For now.
*
The case itself*
The case was brought about by the Catholic Church in response to a letter from the Home Minister (equivalent of the US Dept of Interior) to desist from using the word Allah in our weekly periodical Catholic Herald. This is a local periodical and is published in four languages (in a single edition), English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. (how much more Catholic can you get than that!! I am proud that the Malaysian Church is so catholic)

As such the ruling only applies to the Catholic Herald, Christian leaders are clear that we will continue to use Allah when worshiping in the Malay language (60% of Malaysian Christians use Malay in the worship), in Malay-language Bibles (which are all imported because of sensitivities in printing them locally) and any other periodicals not subject to this ruling.

Malay Bibles
The basis for this ruling can be very easily applied to Malay-language Bibles, which has not been tested in courts. This could well be the thin end of the wedge. At present, Christian churches are in running battles with the government over importation of Malay-language Bibles. We have had Bibles impounded, or had serial numbers stamped on them as if they were controlled publications. An solution proposed by the Prime Minister in 2011, just prior to elections in a Christian-majority state, allowed us to import such Bibles.

While the use of Allah in these Bibles were not explicitly stated, the implicit agreement to the word in these Bibles are clear as that was the reason they were impounded in the first place. The solution requires Malay-language Bibles to carry a cross and the words “For Christians only” and we have no problems with that.

That solution, while contained in a letter from the Prime Minister, was never formally signed or enacted as law. We hear talk that the sultans, who are the heads of religion in their respective states, objected to the solution.

Legal prohibitions
As religion is a state matter in Malaysia and nine of the states have their own ethnic-Malay Muslim hereditary rulers (the rotating monarch for the whole country, chosen from these hereditary rulers, is the head of Islam in states without a sultan), some states have enacted prohibitions against non-Muslims use of a list of terms reserved only for Muslim. These lists are all headed with the term Allah and in some cases, even included Arabic words for missionary and angels.

These prohibitions were either issued as fatwa (edicts) or included into Syaria law of the states. However, the constitution is clear that Syaria law only applies to Muslims and we therefore ignore these prohibitions even though they were directed at us. For now.

It is part of the Federal laws of Malaysia that we cannot evangelise a Muslim, which local Malaysians have obseved. Some American evangelicals have been arrested under this law in the past. The law was to protect the priviledged postiion of ethnic-Malay Muslims under the constitution, which define a Malay as, inter alia, a Muslim. (this means an ethnic Malay who convert out of Islam has no race!)

The political background
Malaysia comprises two parts: (i) the more populous West Malaysia, where most of the ethnic Malay Muslims (50% of population) reside, and (ii) the two states of East Malaysia on the island of Borneo, where most of the Christians who use the Malay-language reside. There are no religious issues in East Malaysia, where mixed marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims are common.

Ethnic Malay Muslims in West Malaysia have insecurities due to perceived economic domination by the Chinese and have used their political dominance to retain their primacy from before independance. There is therefore a genuine fear among some ethnic Malay Muslims that conversion by Christians would erode this political domination. Which is why only Christians face the Allah issue and not Sikhs, who also use Allah in their scripture. So far, despite requests for evidence, no firm evidence of attempts or conspiracy to convert Muslims have emerged.

Unfortunately for the ruling party, they are reliant on parliamentary seats in East Malaysia to stay in power and a majority of the indigeneous people of East Malaysia are Christians, who use the Malay language in their worship (they include the formerly head-hunting Dayaks). As such, we do not expect much action by the government on this issue once the elections of the ruling party is over next week, at least until state elections in East Malaysia due before 2016. Still, it does not augur well for the future that a minority of Muslims have poisoned for political gain, relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims at a personal level.

 

[MartinJordan]

The short answer is no. For now.
*
The case itself*
The case was brought about by the Catholic Church in response to a letter from the Home Minister (equivalent of the US Dept of Interior) to desist from using the word Allah in our weekly periodical Catholic Herald. This is a local periodical and is published in four languages (in a single edition), English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. (how much more Catholic can you get than that!! I am proud that the Malaysian Church is so catholic)

As such the ruling only applies to the Catholic Herald, Christian leaders are clear that we will continue to use Allah when worshiping in the Malay language (60% of Malaysian Christians use Malay in the worship), in Malay-language Bibles (which are all imported because of sensitivities in printing them locally) and any other periodicals not subject to this ruling.

Malay Bibles
The basis for this ruling can be very easily applied to Malay-language Bibles, which has not been tested in courts. This could well be the thin end of the wedge. At present, Christian churches are in running battles with the government over importation of Malay-language Bibles. We have had Bibles impounded, or had serial numbers stamped on them as if they were controlled publications. An solution proposed by the Prime Minister in 2011, just prior to elections in a Christian-majority state, allowed us to import such Bibles.

While the use of Allah in these Bibles were not explicitly stated, the implicit agreement to the word in these Bibles are clear as that was the reason they were impounded in the first place. The solution requires Malay-language Bibles to carry a cross and the words “For Christians only” and we have no problems with that.

That solution, while contained in a letter from the Prime Minister, was never formally signed or enacted as law. We hear talk that the sultans, who are the heads of religion in their respective states, objected to the solution.

Legal prohibitions
As religion is a state matter in Malaysia and nine of the states have their own ethnic-Malay Muslim hereditary rulers (the rotating monarch for the whole country, chosen from these hereditary rulers, is the head of Islam in states without a sultan), some states have enacted prohibitions against non-Muslims use of a list of terms reserved only for Muslim. These lists are all headed with the term Allah and in some cases, even included Arabic words for missionary and angels.

These prohibitions were either issued as fatwa (edicts) or included into Syaria law of the states. However, the constitution is clear that Syaria law only applies to Muslims and we therefore ignore these prohibitions even though they were directed at us. For now.

It is part of the Federal laws of Malaysia that we cannot evangelise a Muslim, which local Malaysians have obseved. Some American evangelicals have been arrested under this law in the past. The law was to protect the priviledged postiion of ethnic-Malay Muslims under the constitution, which define a Malay as, inter alia, a Muslim. (this means an ethnic Malay who convert out of Islam has no race!)

The political background
Malaysia comprises two parts: (i) the more populous West Malaysia, where most of the ethnic Malay Muslims (50% of population) reside, and (ii) the two states of East Malaysia on the island of Borneo, where most of the Christians who use the Malay-language reside. There are no religious issues in East Malaysia, where mixed marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims are common.

Ethnic Malay Muslims in West Malaysia have insecurities due to perceived economic domination by the Chinese and have used their political dominance to retain their primacy from before independance. There is therefore a genuine fear among some ethnic Malay Muslims that conversion by Christians would erode this political domination. Which is why only Christians face the Allah issue and not Sikhs, who also use Allah in their scripture. So far, despite requests for evidence, no firm evidence of attempts or conspiracy to convert Muslims have emerged.

Unfortunately for the ruling party, they are reliant on parliamentary seats in East Malaysia to stay in power and a majority of the indigeneous people of East Malaysia are Christians, who use the Malay language in their worship (they include the formerly head-hunting Dayaks). As such, we do not expect much action by the government on this issue once the elections of the ruling party is over next week, at least until state elections in East Malaysia due before 2016. Still, it does not augur well for the future that a minority of Muslims have poisoned for political gain, relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims at a personal level.

Thank you JimKhong. You sure are on top of this and this is all very interesting.

Let’s pray things don’t go out of hand.

Godbless,
MJ

 

[Judas_Thaddeus]

I’m interested to know what this means for Christians. For example, if Christians in Malaysia say, “Allah” referring to the God of Christianity (I feel weird saying that) will they be arrested?

I assume so. Churches have also been burnt down over this matter I believe.
I can almost say that this is a “Good Thing”, proves the power of the
word “Allah”, that Muslims convert to Christianity over the use of that
word for God. THAT is what this is all about.

 

[jimkhong]

I assume so. Churches have also been burnt down over this matter I believe.
I can almost say that this is a “Good Thing”, proves the power of the
word “Allah”, that Muslims convert to Christianity over the use of that
word for God. THAT is what this is all about.

No church has been burned down. After the lower court decision in 2009 in favour of Christians, there were some amateurish attempts to fire-bomb churches. Most only left burn marks on church walls. No one was hurt at all.

Only one church (I believe it was an evangelical church) was burnt to crisps - but that wasn’t a church at all. It was a hall used for prayer meetings while the church proper was being built and no one was there at the time. That church just needed a little bit money to complete construction of their new church. As a result of the fire, the government moved rather quickly to forestall any Christian reaction and provided that church with money - more than what they needed to complete construction. A party of the ruling coalition also stepped in to provide a hall for their worship in the meantime. We all agreed that the church got a pretty good deal out of it all. Isn’t God great?

What made Christians proud was that all leaders of the various churches was quick to pronounce the Church’s forgiveness for the perpetrators. In Christian terms and not for a need of national reconciliation. There was a consensus among Christians that this was the Christ-like thing to do while we continue to stand firm for our rights. A pair of Muslim brothers were later arrested for the offense - they did not seem to be too intelligent and seemed to have acted alone.

What was also interesting was that there was a case where a pig’s head was found outside the door of a mosque. We have no evidence that non-Muslims was or was not involved. There was no Muslim reaction to the pig’s head. Neither was there any arrests. It seems like Muslims were well aware that this was an attempt to provoke them and that Christians were not involved. Having said that, they did not seem too interested to find out who was.

So, no lasting damage the last time and we do expect cooler Muslim heads to prevail. Malays are largely peace-loving and God-fearing. When some Christian churches were threatened in neighbouring Indonesia a few years ago, Muslims turned out to guard churches during Christmas midnight mass. Islam is not the same the world over and South East Asia is not Pakistan or Sudan. Still, we pray that political Islam in Malaysia do not get influenced by Taliban elements. I have seen Afgans rebuffed in Malay vilalges and pray that they continue to be so.

 

[Judas_Thaddeus]

No church has been burned down. After the lower court decision in 2009 in favour of Christians, there were some amateurish attempts to fire-bomb churches. Most only left burn marks on church walls. No one was hurt at all.

Only one church (I believe it was an evangelical church) was burnt to crisps - but that wasn’t a church at all. It was a hall used for prayer meetings while the church proper was being built and no one was there at the time. That church just needed a little bit money to complete construction of their new church. As a result of the fire, the government moved rather quickly to forestall any Christian reaction and provided that church with money - more than what they needed to complete construction. A party of the ruling coalition also stepped in to provide a hall for their worship in the meantime. We all agreed that the church got a pretty good deal out of it all. Isn’t God great?

What made Christians proud was that all leaders of the various churches was quick to pronounce the Church’s forgiveness for the perpetrators. In Christian terms and not for a need of national reconciliation. There was a consensus among Christians that this was the Christ-like thing to do while we continue to stand firm for our rights. A pair of Muslim brothers were later arrested for the offense - they did not seem to be too intelligent and seemed to have acted alone.

What was also interesting was that there was a case where a pig’s head was found outside the door of a mosque. We have no evidence that non-Muslims was or was not involved. There was no Muslim reaction to the pig’s head. Neither was there any arrests. It seems like Muslims were well aware that this was an attempt to provoke them and that Christians were not involved. Having said that, they did not seem too interested to find out who was.

So, no lasting damage the last time and we do expect cooler Muslim heads to prevail. Malays are largely peace-loving and God-fearing. When some Christian churches were threatened in neighbouring Indonesia a few years ago, Muslims turned out to guard churches during Christmas midnight mass. Islam is not the same the world over and South East Asia is not Pakistan or Sudan. Still, we pray that political Islam in Malaysia do not get influenced by Taliban elements. I have seen Afgans rebuffed in Malay vilalges and pray that they continue to be so.

OH! I must have misread something in an article,
THANK YOU MUCH FOR THIS COR-
RECTION!!!

 

[jimkhong]

OH! I must have misread something in an article,
THANK YOU MUCH FOR THIS COR-
RECTION!!!

No problem. Good of you to keep an interest in this little corner of Christianity.