only in malaysia!! the malaysian government and many other muslim had copyrighted the word 'allah'.  they said 'allah' belongs to muslim only and no other religions must use 'allah'. crap! loads of bullshit!! christians had been using 'allah' all along… even before the advent of islam! even now, the christian arabs are using 'allah'. 

in dec. 2010, the high court had ruled that the catholic weekly, herald can use the word 'allah', but then believe it or not, the federal government challenged the court's ruling. yes, that's right the umno government. see, those who voted for BN, you want this kind of government? if only PR take over putrajaya, i'm sure they will drop this case and allowed non muslim to use 'allah'.  

the federal government filed an appeal to set aside the court's decision on dec. 2010…. and later on, along with the government, 4 state islamic councils and 2 malays NGO had also joined in the fray and applied to be interveners.. read about it here in the edge.

the appeal will be heard on this coming thursday, 23 may. well, the editor of herald, fr lawrence andrew had then requested the churches to pray for the outcome of the appeal in court. it is hope that the decision will be to our favour. it is hope that there won't be noisy protests during or after the hearing. for those of you who are christians, please do organise a group prayer or pray personally everday. 

in view of this coming up court hearing, the christian federation of malaysia (CFM) had prepared 'an allah fact' sheet. you can download it or read it here, as below: it was written for churches, church leaders and Christians to help them understand why we are using the word "allah" in our BM bibles, the alkitab. 

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CHRISTIAN FEDERATION OF MALAYSIA
(PERSEKUTUAN KRISTIAN MALAYSIA)
Address: 26 Jalan Universiti, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Tel / Fax : + 60 3 7957 1457
Email: cfmsia@yahoo.co.uk

16 May 2013

FOR DISTRIBUTION TO CHURCHES IN MALAYSIA

WHEN, WHY AND HOW CHRISTIANS USE THE WORD ‘ALLAH’

Introduction and Background

The objective of this document is to explain briefly to those Christians who do not understand when, why and how Churches in Malaysia use the word ‘Allah. It is also for Christians who are confused about how to respond, when confronted by the ignorance of non-Muslims about the Christian use of the word ‘Allah’.

There are many (misleading) statements by non-Christians who claim that we should not use the word, because it is an exclusive Muslim term for the God of Islam and can be used only by Muslims. This is a situation peculiar to Malaysia, as elsewhere in the Muslim world, Arabic-speaking Christians use the word ‘Allah’.

Christians themselves are sometimes ignorant, because unless we pray in Bahasa Malaysia, we pray to ‘God’ in our own language. In English services, for example, nowhere do we use the word ‘Allah’.

However, more than 60% of Malaysian Christians only speak Bahasa Malaysia, and the word used for God in the Bahasa Malaysia Bible (Al-Kitab) since its translation in 1731, is ‘Allah’. The word is used by Bumiputera Christians who only have Bahasa

Malaysia as their common language in Sabah, Sarawak and peninsular Malaysia, and by the Baba community in Malacca.

Historical Usage and Meaning

1.   The word ‘Allah’ was a term used for the supreme God in a pantheon of gods, before the revelation of Islam. The Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam ed., H. A. R.
Gibb & J. H. Kramer and The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic
World, ed. John L. Esposito, both affirm and support this contention.

2.   Historically, Malay-speaking Christians in South-East Asia have used ‘Allah’ to refer to God. The proof is as follows:

· The Kitab salat as-sawai or Christian catechisms in Malay written in 1514 and published around 1545,

· The printed version of the Gospel of Matthew in Malay by A.C. Ruyl in 1629,

· Malay-Latin Dictionary was printed in Rome in 1631 (The Dictionarium Malaicum-Latinum and Latinum – Malaicum)

· The translation of Genesis by D. Brouwerius (1662),

· M. Leijdecker’s translation (1733),

· H.C. Klinkert’s translation (1879),

· W.A. Bode’s translation (1938), and

· The complete Malay Bible of 1731-1733 containing the word ‘Allah’ for God.

3.   Therefore, from the very beginning, the word ‘Allah’ has been used in the liturgy, prayers and worship of those Christians who speak Bahasa Malaysia. But for centuries, there has been no opposition or uproar about their use of ‘Allah’.

Language

Objections to the use of the word ‘Allah’ comes mostly from political discourse, or  those who argue that the translation and usage of the word is a recent decision. This is not true for the following reasons:

1. In Semitic languages, the word ‘Allah’ has been widely used in the Middle East dating back to the 5th century BC and up to the time of the expansion of Islam and the spread of the Arabic language in the 7th century AD.

2. The translation of the Al-Kitab is not from the English translation but based on the Hebrew and Greek text of the Bible. In the Hebrew language, the word ‘God’ has the same root form as the Arabic language. So, when the word ‘God’ was first translated into Bahasa Malaysia, the translators merely followed the Arabic Christian usage and retained the word ‘Allah’.

3.   As stated earlier, the word ‘Allah’ pre-dates Islam. It is not a creation of the Muslims and its existence does not begin in the Al-Quran.

Should Christians Substitute the word ‘Allah’ with ‘Tuhan’?

This is not possible for the following reasons :

1.   In the Malay language, ‘Allah’ means ‘God’ and Tuhan means ‘Lord’. As is obvious when we read the Bible, both God and Lord are used in the Bible, and both have different connotations. Therefore ‘Allah’ cannot be substituted by ‘Tuhan’.

2.   The word Tuhan has been applied to Jesus Christ and read as Tuhan Yesus. If Christians are to substitute the word ‘Allah’ for Tuhan, it will render many Biblical references to God and Jesus incoherent because:

· The meaning of ‘Allah’ and Tuhan are different.

· This is obvious in just one example. In Isaiah chapter 41 and verse 13;  also
43 : 3 and 51 : 15. "For I am the LORD, your GOD…" is translated as "Akulah TUHAN, ALLAH kamu…". (ALKITAB : Berita Baik. 2001. 2nd edition. Published by the Bible Society of Malaysia).

· It creates an absurd situation if Christians have to translate the biblical phrase ‘Lord God’ as Tuhan Tuhan. The repeated words Tuhan Tuhan indicates plural in Bahasa Malaysia, and creates the impression that Christians believe in many Gods, which is unacceptable. · Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Christians will not be able to affirm the deity of Jesus Christ and teach the doctrine of the Trinity as these two foundational words are essential to maintain and communicate these
truths.

Consequences of Banning the Word “Allah”

1.   Being denied the use of the word ‘Allah’ disregards the constitutional right of Malaysian citizens to freedom of religion under the Federal Constitution. Article 11 of the Federal Constitution safeguards the right of each Malaysian to profess and practice one’s religion of choice. Article 11(3) expressly provides that every religious group has the right to manage their own religious affairs.

2.   In 2011, the High Court handed down a judgement allowing the Catholic Church to use the word ‘Allah’. The government (of all Malaysians, including Christians) is appealing the judgement and it is pending.

3.   There have been other infringements on the right to use words imperative in the Bahasa Malaysia Bible. See the directive of 5 Dec 1986 from the Ministry of Home Affairs stating that, in addition to ‘Allah’, the words: Al-Kitab, Firman, Rasul, Iman, Ibadah, Injil, Wahyu, Nabi, Syukur, Solat and doa are not to be used in the Al-Kitab. In addition, making such prohibitions through fatwa render them only relevant to Muslims as the Shari’a does not apply to non- Muslims.

4.   Prohibiting the use of the word ‘Allah’ and these other terms is unjust. Bumiputera Christians should be given the respect and freedom to call God in the only language they have in common. This is important to their religious and cultural identity.

5. If Churches in Malaysia agree to stop using the word ‘Allah’, it means that the right to edit the Scripture of a major world religion has been given over to a secular government. This would be a shameful and an unprecedented development for any religion and government.

Conclusion

Some Muslims have claimed repeatedly that Christians in Malaysia refuse to stop using the word ‘Allah’ because they want to confuse and convert Muslims, thereby posing a threat to national security. The claim is groundless as there has been no evidence offered of any threat to security. These remain unfounded accusations.

On the contrary, such an assertion is made in ignorance of the fact that when Christians use the Al-Kitab, it is simply for Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Christians. Malaysian Churches have never suggested changing the words ‘God’ and ‘Lord’ to ‘Allah’ and ‘Tuhan’ respectively, in the other languages of the Bible.

16 May 2013

PREPARED BY THE CHRISTIAN FEDERATION OF MALAYSIA

(Persekutuan Kristian Malaysia)

Malaysiakini
Gross distortions in Malaysia's voting system

Ramesh Rajaratnam
8:23AM May 9, 2013
 

COMMENT The recently completed May 5 general election (GE13) revealed some interesting facts and figures based on the results as published by the Election Commission.

There have been, for a long time, much criticism of the ‘first past the post' (FPTP) election system we practise in Malaysia, because of what is inherent in this antiquated system.

The FPTP is one of the legacies of the British rule in Malaya and was based on giving all segments of the populace a voice in Parliament. Hence, constituency boundaries were drawn based on this segmental need for representation.
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hooligans… or in our local lingua '1malaysia samseng'.  plenty of them around during the 13th general election. documented proof in videos. why i mentioned 1malaysia? they were wearing the 1malaysia t-shirts!  we all know 1malaysia club is aligned to barisan nasional (BN), don't we. in another video, the hooligans were wearing  'i luv PM' t-shirt. gosh! supporters of the PM are hooligans? figures!! the PM did not speak out to condemn them too! just imagine if the hooligans were from PR, he and all the umnoputera would jumped up at once to condemn the hooligans.

the first  video here –  happened in pengkalan pegoh, ipoh on 3 may when a group of PR supporters were having a peaceful flash mob on the streets. suddenly, for no reason at all, a group of 1malaysia samseng (the video stated they are umno supporters)  came on bike and several of them started to attack the PR supporters who were holding flashcards.

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YAHOO!!! i'm so happy and damn proud because i'm a penangite.

that's right…. despite so many free food and free concerts that barisan nasional (BN) dished out to penangites, glad to know that penangites did not choose BN! of course there were also the money politics that had been going on and votes buying and gangsters in action…. oh and the so many many 1malaysia flags that can be seen here, there, everywhere, obstructing pedestrians, traffic, turning art-pieces ugly and so on. i guess penangites were very disgusted at the money politics and the many 1malaysia flags, that they decided to teach BN a lesson.

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in penang, pakatan rakyat (PR) will have its final ceramah (rally) before polling day – one on the island and one on the mainland. do not missed them! no excuse for missing them since the island people and the mainland people are considered. why, i'm sure many people will even go for both ceramah!

lately, as we had heard and seen (like on facebook) many of the PR ceramah all over the states had been very well attended. no free food, no free t-shirt, no free entertainment… yet the ceramah continued to draw in crowds, as many as 70,000, as seen on 29 april monday at han chiang. i hope today's esplanade will draw in 100,000! so YOU must be there to made up the crowd.

i will be there of course but luckily i have a media tag so i can be inside the media enclosure right in front of the stage. will be able to get good shots of the crowd and the speakers then from there. had attended the one on 19 april at the esplanade too and there were about 50,000 people! you can see the photo album on my facebook. 

ok right now, i only have the poster for the ceramah on the island today. tomorrow's ceramah will be IJM promenade, bandar sri pinang, at 8.00pm.

Press Statement By Penang Pakatan Rakyat Chair And Caretaker Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng In Penang On 2.5.2013.

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PR Penang Under Siege From The Triple Unholy Alliance Of BN, 1 Malaysia Penang Welfare Club And Unscrupulous Housing Developers Whose Victory In Penang Will Not Only Result In Return Of Corruption But Also Deprive Penangites Of Their Homes.
 

PR Penang is under siege in this general elections from the triple unholy alliance of BN, 1Malaysia Penang Welfare Club and unscrupulous housing developers. Clearly a BN victory in Penang will not only result in return of corruption but also deprive 4,000 families in Penang of their homes. The latest to join BN’s effort to seize power in Penang are unscrupulous housing developers with a chequered history of not only fulfilling their promises to their buyers with defective products but also causing them heartbreak by failing to give out strata titles as required by the law.
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you should vote for PAS (not BN!) or any parties… as long as it is ABU! (anything but umno – or in bahasa asalkan bukan umno). let's go one step further. vote, vote, as long as it is ABCD - 'asalkan bukan cap dacing' (as long as it is not the balance symbol).

barisan nasional (BN) had been going all out to frighten non muslim not to vote or to support PAS because PAS will impose islamic state lah, syariah law lah, hudud lah, this and that lah… but that's just it – frighten… BN just want to frighten you. you have no reason to fear PAS at all. 

only criminals will fear hudud! if you are not a criminal, why then fear hudud? anyway, here is a good post from a blogger friend about hudud.

i will reproduce here two articles that tell you, you don't have to fear PAS and hudud. read them and i hope you'll share them to others, especially the old chinese aunties and uncles who still fear PAS.

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UPDATED ON 25 APR.

heard that now there is this car-stickers that says '1malaysia undi barisan nasional'. the car stickers are given free to motorist and if they stick it on their cars and get spotted, they will win cash prize as much as RM300.

then there is also this 'betting game' (bookie) going on. a bookie collect RM200 from you to bet that a DAP candidate will lose… and if he really lose when the result is out, you who placed the bet will get RM2000!!

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ORIGINAL POST

these days, almost everywhere i went, the 'kopi tiam' talk i heard were about 'free food here and there'!! yep that's right, as the general election approach, we suddenly see the 1malaysia welfare club appearing… and what had they been doing? offering free food almost everyday at every town of penang! first i heard it was dinner only… then few days ago, suddenly heard they offered free breakfast too, especially to the residents of apartments.

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before you vote, please be educated! important facts and information to be aware of as a voter.

bersih, tindak malaysia and durian fm.com had get together to produce some interesting videos for you to be aware of your voter's rights and to lean more about voting. there are all together 12 videos. these videos are well made with humour thrown in. this is good as it will make ordinary people understand it easier. do share the videos with your family and friends. you can even use the videos to organise a session to show to people (e.g. school, church, college, organisations, companies).

i'm highlighting here two videos which i find very funny and interesting.  if you click here for the first video, you will be able to see all the 12 videos.

episode 3a:  indelible ink issue

episode 5a:  the hidden dot

the other videos are:

episode 1:  voters education by ambiga
episode 2:  patrick teoh – the polling station layout
episode 3a:  'wong fat hong' – indelible ink issue (as highlighted here)
episode 3b:  PY wong – indelible ink
episode 4a:  zunar – phantom voter 
episode 4b: PY wong – phantom voter
episode 5a:  hishamuddin rais – the hidden dot (as highlighted here)
episode 5b:  PY wong  - the hidden dot
episode 6:  the changing room
episode 7:  PY wong – election cost

whoa! yes, for the first time, a rally by PR at komtar.  thus malaysiakini is right to label it as 'rare'. all the while, almost every friday, we always hear of perkasa. mamak (some) or some 'umno-based' malay NGOs having their rally their…. well it's not only anti state govt rally but anti lim guan eng! yes most of the time the rally is very anti lim guan eng, i tell you. oh and they not only held the rally there but they made a short walk e.g. from the nearby surau to komtar, whereas the PR supporters yesterday did not organised the walk but just gathered at komtar for the rally. well, perkasa, mamak (some), anti state govt NGO… they can hold a walk as the police will do anything to them… whereas if it is like yesterday's organiser e.g. PKR, SAMM, if they hold a walk, the police might stop them! 
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