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[Dunia]
Malaysia would be misguided to ban Arabic word for God
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Malaysia would be misguided to ban Arabic word for God
Khaled Diab
October 3, 2013 Updated: October 3, 2013 17:54:00
Malaysia is embroiled in a holy war of words. The government wants to ban Christians from using what it regards as a word that should be used only by Muslims.
In 2008, the government threatened to revoke a publishing licence from the Catholic Herald if the newspaper did not refrain from referring to “God” as “Allah”. This would be problematic, as it would force the newspaper to misquote the centuries-old Malay version of the Bible. The local alternative, Tuhan, is used to refer specifically to “the Lord”.
Fortunately, Malaysia’s high court ruled in the newspaper’s favour. The authorities, however, have appealed the verdict.
The dispute is a symptom of deeper troubles. Despite the fact that Malaysians, in their kaleidoscope of religious and racial diversity, tend to “talk conflict, but walk cohesion”, as one academic put it, the country has been experiencing rising tensions between its various groups.
Though it is one of the world’s longest-ruling parties, Barisan Nasional (the National Front) has seen its support base dwindling in recent years. In May, Barisan – whose three race-based parties operate on sectarian grounds outside of elections – gained less than half of the popular vote.
Despite statistical evidence to the contrary, prime minister Najib Razak blamed the erosion on a “Chinese tsunami”. The Malaysian government has also been under growing pressure from Islamic parties, and this has led the government, as has occurred elsewhere, to play the piety card and engage in identity politics.
But is there any validity for limiting the use of “Allah” to Muslims?
The controversy is partly fuelled by confusion. Most Malaysians do not speak Arabic and so some of the Muslims among them may be under the false impression that “Allah” is an exclusively Islamic word. But they are mistaken. “Allah” is simply the Arabic word for “God”.
The word itself – which is probably a contraction of the Arabic al-illah (the god) – predates Islam. It was used by the Arabs to refer to the chief god of Mecca, whom they believed to be the creator of the world and the giver of rain and was venerated around the black stone of the Kaaba.
In Islam, “Allah” is one of 99 names of God. And the word still has not lost its general sense. For example, the beginning of the shahada, or Islamic creed, states that: “la illaha ila Allah”, or “there is no god but God”. The word is also used in the plural form, “alleha”, to refer to the Egyptian and Greek pantheons, for example.
It should then come as no surprise that Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews have, for centuries, referred to God as Allah. In Egypt, for instance, Copts say “Allah mahaba” or “God is love” and I have met Christians whose name is Abdullah (Servant of God).
The fact that Arab and Maltese Christians worship “Allah” while Malaysian Christians have gone to court to defend their right to do so is likely to confuse many conservatives and anti-Muslims in the West.
This is reflected in the controversy in January when a Colorado school allowed pupils to recite the pledge of allegiance in Arabic, sparking anger that the kids were expressing their loyalty to “one nation under Allah”.
But this is just plain ridiculous: Allah is God and God is Allah.
That is why it sometimes irritates me when English translations of the Quran talk of Allah, not God. After all, English translations of the Bible do not tend to use the Aramaic or Hebrew words for God but employ a Germanic one, which derives from guthan, meaning “that which is invoked”.
But some conservative Christians will invoke, in their defence, that Muslims pray to a different deity to them and so this must be distinguished. But this is also nonsense. Though they may disagree on certain ideological and doctrinal issues, and even a little on the nature of God, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all worship the same monotheistic deity.
In fact, it is not a stretch to say that the three religions are essentially branches of the same faith. That is why Muslims refer to the “People of the Book”, and all three religions trace their roots back to Abraham, whom they believe to be their common patriarch.
Khaled Diab (www.chronikler.com) is a Belgian-Egyptian freelance journalist
On Twitter: @DiabolicalIdea
Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/thenat ... r-god#ixzz2hq04xHMu
Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook
harap mak long, penulis nie ejen yahudi...... 
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sure pak arab ketawa berdekah2 tgk isu kalimah ni
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ntah apa2 laa........ 
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murtad tak??? |
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ganyang USA.....!!! 
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Mulayu = Indon caprut, kuat klaim
Tulisan arob - diklaim jadi Jawi & diakui warisan Mulayu
Perkataan Arob - Awloh, diklaim jadi hak mulayu sunni nan suci
 
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ko duduk USA kena ikut undang2 Demokrat
ko duduk Peranchis kena ikut bayar income tax 60%
ko duduk German kena ikut belajar bahasa German nak kerja
ko duduk Australia tak boleh halang kewujudan Nude Beach. itu undang2 Ozzie.
ko duduk bawah kerajaan UMNO, ikut aje la! |
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Org luar boleh la kritik keputusan mahkamah Malaysia. Tapi mereka tak faham masalah yang dihadapi di negara ini. Masalah utamanya adalah ummah melayu mudah sangat terpesong. Nampak pak arab berjubah cakap arab aje terus dicop ostad.
Masalah kedua mungkin juga disebabkan oleh pemimpin sendiri bodoh. Ini hanya terjadi apabila rakyat juga bodoh. |
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kecimpret posted on 16-10-2013 08:50 AM 
sure pak arab ketawa berdekah2 tgk isu kalimah ni
nama tuhan sendiri pun nak tiru
nama tuhan orang
cokia sungguh puak2
holly shit
kata pak arab sambil
ketawa berdekah2
pfftt
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pyropura posted on 16-10-2013 01:38 PM
Mulayu = Indon caprut, kuat klaim
Tulisan arob - diklaim jadi Jawi & diakui warisan Mulayu
^ contoh puak holly shit
tak ada nama tuhan sendiri
nak tiru nama tuhan orang lain
lepas tu mahkamah tak bagi
terus sentap
lalu meroyan ngadu kat
segala arab UAE qatar kuwait bahrain
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Acong posted on 16-10-2013 01:31 PM
ganyang USA.....!!!
Aku dah cakap dah. Apa pandangan Muslim Amerika terhadap Muslim Malaysia selepas isu ini? Mesti negatif. Orang kat Arab pun tak bantah. Malaysia ajer tak boleh
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pyropura posted on 16-10-2013 02:06 PM
Tuhan HANYA ada SATU, & nama Dia tuhan nan satu tu adalah ALLAH....ada burapa banyak tuhan nih?? ...
lu miya tuhan
tuhan anak ka
tuhan bapak ka
tuhan menantu tiri ka
tuhan apa ka?
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taikor posted on 16-10-2013 02:09 PM
Aku dah cakap dah. Apa pandangan Muslim Amerika terhadap Muslim Malaysia selepas isu ini? Mesti ne ...
lu jangan sibuk pasal pandangan
orang lain la apek
negara lain tak sama undang2
dan situasi sosiopolitiknya
agama rasmi amerika pun bukan islam
seperti di malaysia
lu tak suka sini
kasi balik cina ka
australia ka amerika la
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Tak habis lg isu ni ka??  |
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apa reason mahkamah memihak pada gomen?...
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pyropura posted on 16-10-2013 02:16 PM
Allah tu tuhan sekalian alam...
andai kuceng & kambeng boleh berbicara, depa pun akan sebut nam ...
keling kata lembu tu tuhan
baik lu suruh keling tu
mengucap dulu sebelum lu tanya
kat kambing
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Decaffeinated posted on 16-10-2013 02:20 PM
apa reason mahkamah memihak pada gomen?...
bodo ke apa
ini bukan kes gomen versus DAP
ini isu muslim malaysia versus holly shit
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Tuhan non muslin adalah tuan alah...
Tuhan orang Islam adalah Tuhan Allah...
tak sama tu jauh bezanya....jadi saya cadangkan mereka guna Tuan Alah.... |
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Post time 16-10-2013 07:54 AM
变色卡
Author
