The recent church bombings which brought such negative publicity is the culmination of a calculated attempt by morally bankrupt and ignorant politicians to shore up support from the Malay community.
Unfortunately in Malaysia, Islam has always been a political football to be kicked around unethically by unscrupulous and opportunistic leaders on both sides of the political divide to score points.
What is glaringly clear for the world to see is the ignorance in Malaysia over basic Islamic theology which would be laughable if it was not so tragic.
Despite the rhetoric of being an 'Islamic state' as claimed by Najib, despite the years of 'Islamisation' programmes promoted by Anwar Ibrahim in his incarnation as an Umno firebrand, despite the whole gamut of Islamic laws and Islamic organisations together with the outward appearances of being Islamic, the adherence to Islamic values and knowledge of basic Islamic theology is shockingly poor amongst many Malays based on the responses over the 'Allah' issue in the electronic and print media.
The justification for banning Christians from using the word 'Allah' has absolutely no Islamic historical or theological basis. This sorry episode has thrown into sharp relief the woefully deficient Islamic knowledge of the Malay masses who as a consequence are prone to easy manipulation and exploitation by the Muslim elite who wield power over them.
I beg to disagree with some quarters who feel it would better for the Catholic Church to 'swallow pride' and not to use the word Allah for the sake of peace. Should Catholics then be expected to jettison logic, historical and theological credence just to appease irrational bigots and cynical politicians who do not have any respect for the truth let alone Islamic theology?
It would be immoral to do so. One can argue that by showing an unshakeable resolve, the Catholic church would actually be educating Muslims in Malaysia about their Islamic faith and this should be welcome by all honest and rational Muslims.
The 'Father' of Malay Literature Munshi Abdullah translated the New Testament Bible into Malay in the 1800s and not surprisingly used the term Allah to refer to God. Thus it is not true that the references to Allah in the Malay Language Bible emanate from Indonesia only in recent years .
We have not only an indigenous Christian historical legacy of the usage of the term 'Allah' in the Malay language but also one corroborated by a venerated devout local Muslim scholar. This fact patently demolishes the claim that Allah has only been used in our country to denote a Muslim Malay God.
It is amusing to see the rush of denouncements and calls for inter-faith discussions in the aftermath of the church bombings by opposition Muslim leaders when they themselves contributed to the climate of intolerance, paranoia and misunderstanding amongst the Malays.
They shot down Abdullah Badawi's Inter-Faith Commission proposal by declaring that it would lead to usurpation of powers of the Shariah courts and the undermining of primacy of Islam in Malaysia.
Anwar has kept a studied silence
Anwar's lawyer in his current 'Qazaf' suit in the Shariah courts, Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzaman, made very derogatory and unsubstantiated allegations concerning the aims of the proposed Inter-faith Commission.
To those of us who do not 'mudah lupa', we remember the intemperate and intimidatory responses by prominent PAS and PKR members namely Salahuddin Ayub and Zulkifli Noordin who were clear rabble rousers who managed to scupper the inter-faith forums organised by Malik Imtiaz Sarwar as well as the Bar Council open forum on conversion to Islam of non- Muslim children by a newly converted Muslim spouse.
These oppositionists and their supporters violently ended the forum on the pretext of preserving the sanctity or 'kesucian' of Islam!
Zulkifli Noordin of PKR has been making very divisive and inflammatory comments against non-Muslims during his tenure as a member of Parliament but yet his party has failed to discipline him thus giving the impression that the Muslim leadership in PKR tacitly support his bigoted views. In fact he is Anwar Ibrahim's lawyer in his current suit against Saiful in the Shariah courts.
Anwar being true to form has kept a studied silence on all these simmering issues which could have helped diffuse the tension in the Muslim community which was being stoked by Umno over the past few years.
The Allah issue first surfaced about a year ago but Anwar kept a deafening silence and failed to provide moral leadership. This pattern of duplicitous silence has had a very damaging effect on his credibility.
Over the Mazu statue in Kudat, Anwar failed to comment on the stop work order. He could have denounced Abim's (an organisation he founded) view that the statue would 'desecrate' a mosque half a kilometer away but he chose not to.
When Lina Joy was denied her constitutional right to declare herself a Christian by the Federal Court, Anwar publicly showed his support for Judge Fairuz's judgement saying it was a 'fair judgement'.
Lina Joy, a Christian was instructed illogically by the Civil courts that she needed to get her religious status clarified by the Shariah Courts. Anwar concurred saying it was a matter of procedure and that we should have more confidence in the Shariah courts!
However, when the Shariah courts declared that Revathi a practising Hindu was a 'Muslim forever' and could not change her faith, Anwar kept a cowardly silence showing his unprincipled nature.
This is the man who lectures in the West about the compatibility of Islam with Secularism and freedom of conscience but in Malaysia adopts an unprincipled silence on these burning issues which go to the heart of what democracy, freedom of worship and conscience is all about.
Over the Allah issue, up till the very day before the planned protests on Friday, Anwar did not offer any clear or responsible leadership. He contributed to the tension in the air by talking about the issue being 'sensitive' and the 'legitimate' Muslim concerns about proselytisation.
How this could be a legitimate concern when proselytising is unconstitutional and that the Herald publication is only for internal circulation to fellow Catholics is mind boggling! Being a politician with strong Islamic credentials, he could have made an unequivocal statement that Allah from an etymological standpoint is a generic term for God and that from a Muslim theological standpoint Allah is the God of Jews, Christians and Muslims.
This he signally failed to do for reasons best known to him and as a consequence provided justification for Muslim fury over this debacle.
The Quran is replete with verses which attest to the fact Allah is the God of the Abrahamic faiths and any Muslim who reads the Quran will have no doubt about this. But instead in his interview with Malaysiakini , Anwar feigned ignorance and said he was not an authority but instead referred to Sheikh Qaradawi, a Middle Eastern cleric, who told him it was permissible for Christians to call God Allah.
Such moral cowardice! Incidentally, Sheikh Qaradawi has gained notoriety by giving legitimacy to suicide bombers. I concur with Zaid Ibrahim that in the Malaysian context this issue is 'too serious to be left to theologians'.
Why did Anwar have to go so far as the Middle East? If he now claims to be an ignoramus on basic Islamic tenets, then he could have sought advice from our venerated local Muslim spiritual leader Tok Aziz of PAS who from the very beginning when the Allah issue arose said it was acceptable for Christians to call God Allah.
If the BN government is wise and does not want to divide society further or damage Malaysia's international standing further, it would withdraw the appeal of the High Court judgement. It is not a matter of swallowing pride but of being a responsible custodian of the nation.
Why stubbornly dig itself and the nation into a hole when there is unequivocal etymological, historical and theological evidence supporting the use of the term Allah by Christians?
For all the Muslims who are confused over the Allah issue, let the Quran have the final word.
Chapter 2 Verse 139: "Why do you dispute with us about Allah when He is equally your Lord and our Lord? To us belong our actions, to you yours; and we are true to Him".
