‘All countries have their own native languages and they will translate the word 'God/Allah' into their own language. A good example is Indonesia. I am pretty sure Christians there use the word 'Allah' very extensively.'

Editor's Note:

It allows Christians to use the term Allah - but only in print.

‘The printing, publishing, sale, issue, circulation and possession of any document and publication relating to Christianity containing the words Allah, Kaabah, Baitullah and Solat are prohibited unless on the front cover of the document and publication are written with the words ‘For Christianity,’ says the gazette.'

On Other Christian denominations not using 'Allah'

Asraf Abdullah: As a Muslim convert, I find this letter un-called for and it is very offensive and disrespectful not only to the Christian communities but also to the whole country as well.

I thought I was brought up in a society that teaches us to respect others regardless of their race and religion but the writer's comments clearly defy this.

Why are you and others attacking the Catholic Church over the word ‘Allah'? Is a certain word only applicable to a certain religion? The writer's remarks that other Catholic countries such as Ireland, France etc are not using the word 'Allah' are totally un-called for.

These countries have their own native languages and they will translate the word 'God/Allah' into their own language. A good example is Indonesia.

I am pretty sure Christians there use the word 'Allah' very extensively in their teachings. We do not see Muslims there condemning Christian communities over the word 'Allah'.

In fact the Bahasa Melayu Bible is produced in Indonesia and exported to Malay-speaking countries including Malaysia. Come on, man, use your common sense.

The Catholic religion has over 1.1 billion followers all over the world and each one of them expresses the word 'God' in their own way. So, please, give Malaysian Catholics a break.

Malaysian Too: I wish to categorically ask this person, ‘Did you do your research?' How do you know only the Catholics use the term? The fact is, the other Christian churches in Malaysia also call their supreme God ‘Allah' when conversing in Malay and other indigenous languages.

The writer talks of the Catholic Church ‘wanting to use the term Allah'. What I say is it is not their ‘wanting' to do it but, in fact, the churches have been using the term ‘Allah' for generations in their worship and sermons in Borneo and Indonesia.

The writer mentions a group of other Christian churches (Anglicans, Methodist, Baptists, etc.) as not using the word ‘Allah'. I think he is confused.

As for foreign countries, when the church services of these denominations are in English or Greek or Serbian or Russian, they use the word ‘God' or ‘Deo' or whatever the term ‘God' is in their languages.

But if services/mass is in Bahasa Malaysia (or you may call it Bahasa Indonesia if you object to Christians services being conducted in Bahasa Malaysia), Iban, Kadazan, Dusun, Kayan, Kenyah, Melanau, etc, or in a Peninsula Orang Asli language, the supreme God is referred to as ‘Allah'.

This is because the Bible was translated into these languages from the Arabic-language Bible and this was before the Europeans such as the Dutch, Portuguese or English colonised our region.

And, how many times have we heard that the term ‘Allah' was first used by Christians in the Middle East before other religions borrowed the term?

I am not a Catholic myself, but it greatly disturbs me to see that Catholics or other Christians are being told that they can't use a term they have used for generations in their worship of their God in their own languages.

So, what's next? Ban music and musical instruments like the Taliban did?

Stephen Hong-an Lim: The writer should remember that the various Christian denominations he mentions in his letter use ‘God,' in their own languages. Definitely churches in the countries he mentioned in his letter do not use the term‘Allah.'

But they use the word of their own local languages. The Chinese-language churches use the word ‘Shangdi' for ‘God, the Javanese churches in Java, Indonesia, use ‘Gusti.'

If the writer goes to Arabic-language churches in the Middle-East such as in Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan, surely he will find the they use the Bible in Arabic, and the word ‘Allah' is used, just like how the Christian communities in Indonesia use the word ‘Allah.'

I find it strange to see that the Arab people, who are the real owner of the Arabic language, do not make a fuss over Arabic-speaking Christians using the word ‘Allah' while Malay-speaking people such as the writer claim that the word ‘Allah' is solely their property.

The writer may wish to read an article written by an Muslim Indonesian scholar, Ulil Abshar Abdallah, which explains the semantic origin of the word ‘Allah.' Before the Islamic era in the Arab countries, the word had already been use to refer to deities the people at the time worshiped.

I also find it strange to see that in Malaysia, the country which upholds the freedom of religion, the Bible is not allowed to be printed in Bahasa Malaysia. Malay-speaking Christians use the Bible in Bahasa Indonesia, instead.

Lastly, the writer said that the use of the word ‘Allah' is trying to target Muslims in the country. Does the writer mean that Malay Muslims are an easy target and can be easily cheated?

I am sure that Malay Muslims can use their thinking to see whether something is Islamic or not, regardless of the use of the term ‘Allah' by non-Muslims.

When I was in Cairo a few years ago, I attended mass in a church there. The Bible was recited in Arabic and the recitation sounded like a tilawatil Quran in Malaysia.

AWTC: We have covered this ground many times before on these very same page and there have been numerous explanations by both Christians and Muslims (including very staunch and learned Muslims from PAS) as to why it is legitimate from a Muslim standpoint for Christians to use ‘Allah'.

It is also a violation of the rights of Malay-speaking, Iban-speaking, etc, Christians to forbid them from practicing their religion freely. And as noted before, Sikhs use the word ‘Allah' as well.

The writer brought up the problem of the Christian belief in the Trinity with regards to the use of the term ‘Allah'. This belief existed during the time of the Prophet Muhammad, and the Prophet criticised it, but never forbade the Christians from using the term ‘Allah'.

If the Prophet himself did not forbid it, why do Malay-Muslims (and only Malay-Muslims, not any other Muslim in the world, including our brothers next door in Indonesia) forbid it?

Secondly, the writer said, ‘I would also want to ask the Malaysian Catholic Church if whether the word ‘Allah' is being used by all Catholic countries like Ireland, France, Italy and all the Catholic churches in the US, UK, Australia and those in Latin America. Hello, I don't think so.'

Sure, but they don't speak a language which uses the word ‘Allah' as a common term for God. The Catholic church in all Arab countries, in Indonesia, and other countries do use the word ‘Allah' for God.

Thirdly, the writer claims that only the Malaysian Catholic Church uses ‘Allah' and not other Christian denominations, saying ‘if the Anglicans, the Methodists, the Southern Baptists, the Mormons, the Lutherans, and the myriad of other Christian denominations are not using the word ‘Allah' for God, why are Malaysia's Catholics insisting on using it?'

This is completely false. Firstly, there are no ‘Southern Baptists' in Malaysia - that is an American denomination. We do have ‘Baptists' which are related the ‘Southern Baptists' and they - as well as the Anglicans and Lutherans - do use ‘Allah' when speaking in Malay, Iban, etc.

I have no idea about the Mormons - they are not considered Christians by most denominations because they believe that Jesus is a separate god from God the Father - but I would not be surprised if they do as well.

In fact, go to any Malay-speaking, Iban-speaking, etc, Christian congregation of any denomination and you will find they use ‘Allah' and, in fact, have been doing so long before there was any country called ‘Malaysia'.

The writer also asks the Malaysian Catholic Church to check with their Pope, but why do they need to do that when centuries before the Prophet Muhammad, Arab Christians who followed the Pope were already using the word?

Finally, the writer claims that it is okay for the Orthodox church to use the term ‘Allah' because they are not Trinitarian. This is completely false.

All Orthodox churches believe that God consists of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it is the lack of Orthodox Christians in Malaysia that led the writer to make these wrong assumptions.

But there are ample Orthodox sites on the Internet you can verify this with. By the way, I am not a Catholic.

Tanak Wagu: The writer's letter smacks of ignorance of Christianity in Malaysia, particularly in East Malaysia. The use of the word ‘Allah' is prevalent among all major Christian denominations in East Malaysia.

The use of this word stems from the Malay-language Bible which has been in use for quite some time. Please note that the Malay-language Bible has the words Untuk Umat Kristian on the opening page.

As for his assertion that the Orthodox Churches of Cyprus, Greece, Russia , Romania and Serbia do not believe in the concept of the Trinity, I would advise him to study the theology of these Christian churches.

Trinity, which is incomprehensible to Muslims, is central to Christian belief. The Roman Catholic, Orthodox Catholic and traditional Protestant churches strongly emphasise the concept of Trinity.

On his allegation that the use of the word ‘Allah' is because the Catholic church is trying to target Muslims, I should say that this allegation is without any basis. It is impossible to proselytise among Muslims because of the syariah laws that govern them in this country.

And please be reminded that the Catholic Herald paper - which is at the centre of conflict here - is only sold within church premises to churchgoers. Now why would any Muslim enter these premises to buy these non-Muslim publication?

What is even funnier is that why would they buy it and then claim the Catholic Church is trying to confuse Muslims!

Unless the writer believes that there is more than one God, then there should be no reason for him to object to Christians praying to Allah. After all, Allah created us all. That I believe is a Christian belief as well as a Muslim belief.

But then again, if he thinks the Catholic Church is trying to influence his fellow co-religionists, then why not ban the English translations of the Quran which use the words ‘Jesus' and ‘Mary'.

Is this not an attempt to confuse Muslims into believing that Jesus of the Gospel and Isa of the Quran are essentially the same? I don't know. But what I do know is that there is a verse in the Quran which says ‘unto you your religion, and unto me, my religion'.

Henry Hock Guan Teh: The writer may have misunderstood two issues. The first is that unlike the Muslims of various tongues who refer to their god as ‘Allah' only, Christians from various tribes can refer to God in their own language.

Hence, the writer's misunderstanding brings him to write a not-so-perfect argument on why Catholic countries like Ireland, France, Italy, USA, UK, etc will not use the word ‘Allah' as reference to their God.

Obviously they will not because those Catholics can refer to God in their own languages because the Christian God has the knowledge of all languages besides Arabic. The writer cannot equate Islamic law and theology on how to address God with Christianity's.

The second misunderstanding is that Malaysia's Catholic Church is not saying that from now on, their God's name is ‘Allah'. They are saying that the Arabic word ‘Allah' has been used by the Malay-speaking Christian communities eg, the Orang Asli and the Indonesian Christians.

The word ‘Allah' is not like a trademark or copyright but part of a language comfortably used by Malay-speaking Christians. The writer cannot impose the same theological understanding for the word ‘Allah' on other religions.

In addition, the writer need to realise that Arab-Christians, before the coming of Prophet Muhammad, had been using the term ‘Allah' since it is their language.

The writer also needs to know that it is not only the Catholics that use the word ‘Allah' but also Malay-speaking Protestants. Hence, there are no qualms over the word between Catholics and other denominations or even other Catholics from other countries.

The Hokkien-speaking Catholic refers to God as ‘Tian Chu'. As for me and other Chinese Christians, we refer to God as ‘Shang Ti' a term actually used by non-Christian Chinese several thousand years ago in China during the pre- Shih Huang Ti era. Any problem with that?

Save Malaysia: My father is from a staunch Protestant family while my mother was brought up in a Roman Catholic chapel thanks to her staunch Catholic family.

My grandparents are respected leaders at their respective churches. I grew up reading both the Malay and English Bible, and I'm very grateful that those are not the only literature I ‘ve read (I've read my husband's Baghavad Ghita too).

History tells us that while the term 'Allah' is best known in the West for its use by Muslims as a reference to God, it is also used by Arabic speakers including those who are Christians and Jews, in reference to the Almighty one ie, God.

Interestingly, in pre-Islamic Arabia, Allah was used by Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity.

Perhaps, Malaysia, Indonesia (mind you the biggest Islamic country that does not seem to have a problem with Christians using the word ‘Allah') and the Arab countries are using the word ‘Allah' because of their use of the Malayan/Arab language.

It is worth to note that Munshi Abdullah (the father of modern Malay literature) translated the Bible into Malay in 1852.

Meanwhile other parts of the world would probably find English, Latin or their respective mother tongues as their medium of communication. If the Christian Arabs of today have no other word for 'God' other than 'Allah', what then could they use?

Some suggest that Christians should use the words, Tuhan and Dewa instead. Are we suggesting to the Indonesians and Arab world that they should not use the words too?

I think not. With that said, who would be marginalising who in this country?