few days ago in one of my post on this issue, someone commented about being curious to see how herald use ‘allah’. well… i’m not surprise of course… not that he/she wanted to know but he/she didn’t know because he/she cannot get hold of a copy of the herald. see, told you herald is not that easy available as they (herald) are sent to catholic churches only.

UPDATED

read from the NaSTy paper, johari said herald should not use allah even though the permit is granted… so what the hell is the meaning of ‘no condition’??? pigilah johari!
the star report (no mention what johari said). in fact the opening line mentioned ‘…with no restrictions on the use of allah’.

huh?? one said restriction, one said no. apalah lu orang!!

ORIGINAL POST

…without condition.

came to know of this via anil netto’s blog. anil is a columnist with herald. he received a phone call from fr. lawrence, herald editor informing him of this news. as one who contributes articles to herald, i am naturally happy to hear that too.

ok since it is sunday, no blog on allah, god, tuhan… but oops my story here is still about allah. since it is still the christmas season (12 days, remember?), here is a story on the meaning of christmas, taken from some website i forgotten. this is strictly for christians only, ok as only christians will understand the story.

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THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

There was once a man who didn’t believe in God, and he didn’t hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays,  like Christmas. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.

… because the government is trying to tell us that muslim have little faith - just by reading christian stuff in bahasa, they will suddenly convert to christianity.
(which is ironic really as herald is not sold to the public at all. herald were sent to catholic churches only).

ok this is latest news on the herald allah issue.

according to malaysiakin, the permit for publication of herald will be renew but with condition that herald take off its bahasa malaysia (BM) section. if that’s the case, i’ll be very disappointed. no, made it angry and sad. i’ll wait till it’s confirm herald has to take off its BM section before i comment further.

from the star:

Thursday December 27, 2007
MYT 9:01:50 PM

Catholic paper files writ of summons

PETALING JAYA: The publisher of Herald - The Catholic Weekly has filed a writ of summons and a statement of claim in the Kuala Lumpur High Court to seek appropriate declarations of the use of the word "Allah".

The publisher said in a statement released Thursday that the Internal Security Ministry had issued a series of directives to the publisher to cease the use of the word "Allah" in the weekly.

The publisher also said that if they failed to do so, the publication’s permit would either be suspended or revoked.

“We have decided to have our legal position to use the word determined by the courts,” the statement said.

The weekly’s editor Reverend Father Lawrence Andrew said that the writ was filed on Dec 5.

The 13-year-old paper, which carries reports about the Catholic community in English, Malay, Tamil and Chinese, has a circulation of 12,000 for its members.

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note from me: those who insists that ‘allah’ is for muslims only, beside reading many of the comment in my blog and other blogs, explaining that ‘allah’ does not solely belongs to muslim, should also read farish noor’s well articulate writings that he wonder do malaysian muslim ever understand the word ‘allah’.

and giving a bad name to christmas too!

a large group of rowdy revellers… a mob!… attacking the police! yes the sprayed artificial snow on the police car, and some even sprayed the snow directly onto the face of a policeman!  and also throw empty cans and stones! shame!

all of them seems to be chinese and there are women too. some were seen wearing santa’s cap! shame!

one video that showed them spraying snow on passing motorists showed 2 children at it! shame!

shame! shame!

… so i understand from someone with handle ‘little bird’ from malaysia today’s site.

Here is how UMNO Pahang is stealing the flood aid. They are using the Bilik Gerakan or Flood Relief Operations Centres which are manned by ‘volunteers’ from the various UMNO Bahagian. These UMNO runners control the lorries and also the list of recipients in the various areas. More importantly, they are in charge of purchasing the food supplies. The millions of Ringgit of taxpayers’ money that is being dumped by the Government is channelled through these Bilik Gerakan. The UMNO ‘volunteers’ are asking suppliers and shopkeepers to issue them false receipts overstating the money that is being spent. For example if a 5kg bag of rice costs RM10.00, they ask the shopkeepers to write a receipt for RM60.00.

that seems to be the message of about 2000 indians who attended the ‘aattam 100 vagai’ (100 types of dances) event at the penang international sports arena (PISA) on sunday night.

samy was there to officiate the event. the crowd booed and jeered at him. haha. good for him. serve him right! he ought to be kicked out from MIC a long time ago. only if he is out of MIC, then he can be out of the cabinet.

read also anil netto’s blog on this issue, with video.

from alaysiakini:

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taken from the malaysian bar.

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Church leaders explain use of ‘Allah’
Sunday, 23 December 2007, 11: 20pm

(c)The Sun (Used by permission) by Joseph Masilamany

PETALING JAYA (Dec 23, 2007): The use of the word "Allah" to refer to God among Christians has been widely practised for generations in many countries and it is not meant to offend or confuse the Muslims, Christian leaders said on Sunday.

Father Lawrence Andrew, the editor of local Catholic weekly The Herald, told theSun that its Bahasa Malaysia segment catered to the many Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Catholics in the country.

(note: last part of title borrowed from kenny’s blog ‘malaysians say the most darndest thing!’.)

you know how it is lah… during every festive season, we have politicians coming up to with messages here and there, mostly same ‘geli’ words to us, which are like old broken record that goes on and on… we must unite lah, living in harmony lah, thankful for stable country lah…… and so on and on. we heard it all… but believe it or not, yesterday i heard the most darndest thing ever said by one politician on occasion of christmas day; the politician is none other than koh tsu koon, penang’s CM and gerakan leader.

from NST:

Malaysians, while celebrating Christmas, must respect Islam as the country’s official religion.

what the hell?? huh? what !*&$(_!^*# 

what in the world has celebrating christmas got to do with islam as official religion? why must mentioned this? why bring in islam in a christian festival message?

ah! i get it. this must be another attempt of koh’s trying to ‘bodek’ UMNO!