Catholic Ping
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Posted on 12/27/2007 6:11:42 AM PST by NYer
kuala lumpur • Malaysian authorities have banned the Malay-language section of a Catholic weekly newspaper due to its use of the word Allah, a senior church leader said yesterday.
Brother Augustine Julian, secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, said the internal security ministry in a letter dated December 10 ordered a ban on articles in The Herald that were written in the Malay language.
"The government does not want us (Christians) to use the word Allah. But this is against the constitution that allows the freedom of religion," he said.
Julian said Allah, or God, was used by church leaders when they deliver sermons in Malay or in the Malay language articles section of the 28-page newspaper.
"We follow the Bible. The Malay-language Bible uses Allah for God. If the government feels the word Allah creates confusion among Muslims, then they should educate their Muslims," Julian said.
The junior minister in the internal security ministry, Mohamad Johari Baharum, could not be reached for comment.
The Herald, a tabloid-sized newspaper, is circulated among the country's 850,000 Catholics with articles written in English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay.
Religion and language are sensitive issues in multi-racial Malaysia.
Malaysian commentators have sounded alarm over the growing "Islamisation" of the country and the increasing polarisation of the three main ethnic communities, who mingle much less than they once did.
About 60 percent of the nation's 27 million people are ethnic Malay Muslims. The rest are mostly Buddhist, Hindu or Christian Chinese and Indians.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Christmas Day warned Malaysians to be on their guard against religious extremists tearing apart the multiracial nation which suffered deadly race riots in 1969.
Julian said church leaders would appeal to the government to lift the ban, adding that Christians were unhappy about the ban.
"Christians are definitely unhappy. The best Christmas gift we hope to get is the lifting of the ban," he said.
Catholic Ping
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so you say, it was actually the name of their Moongod. I as a Christian will never use allah as a word for GOD. To me it would be the same as saying Zues or athena.
god O.E. god "supreme being, deity," from P.Gmc. *guthan (cf. Du. god, Ger. Gott, O.N. guð, Goth. guþ), from PIE *ghut- "that which is invoked" (cf. Skt. huta- "invoked," an epithet of Indra), from root *gheu(e)- "to call, invoke." But some trace it to PIE *ghu-to- "poured," from root *gheu- "to pour, pour a libation" (source of Gk. khein "to pour," khoane "funnel" and khymos "juice;" also in the phrase khute gaia "poured earth," referring to a burial mound). "Given the Greek facts, the Germanic form may have referred in the first instance to the spirit immanent in a burial mound" [Watkins]. Cf. also Zeus. Not related to good. Originally neut. in Gmc., the gender shifted to masc. after the coming of Christianity. O.E. god was probably closer in sense to L. numen. A better word to translate deus might have been P.Gmc. *ansuz, but this was only used of the highest deities in the Gmc. religion, and not of foreign gods, and it was never used of the Christian God. It survives in Eng. mainly in the personal names beginning in Os-.
So maybe you should find another word besides "God"? ;)
I’m totally confused. In what context was the name used? Are non-Muslims not to use the Muslim word for God in any context, only Muslims?
Satan hates the Cross.
Christians . . . you are not allowed to say “God” . . . A memo from the Malaysian government.
One wonders if there is anything too petty for Mohammedens to bitch about when they are comfortable and secure.
More and more Muzzies born each minute, and they get more and more uneducated in a modern world.
Recipe for trouble. Either isolate them and let them sort out their problems within their own borders or set back their numbers substantially. They will take the whole globe back to the 6th century if left to their own ideas.
Nice work.
First of all, as I pointed out above, Allah is the Arabic word for God. It was used by ALL Arabic speaking christians in the Middle East before the birth of Islam. The Malaysian government is now banning christians from using the christian word for God (Allah) by restricting its use to the Muslims. There ... any clearer? Perhaps the information at the following link will explain it better.
I prefer Allan myself.
Looked at the link. It is very large will have to read it later and let you know if anything is clearer to me.
Or Allen.
...And that is what Islam is great at doing, stealing what it cannot have.
I simply ignore the Malaysian government and keep calling God, the God of the Holy Bible God.
Thanks NYer for this posting.
Got to remember what Jesus said about Satan: “ a liar, thief, and a murderer from the begining”.
The relevant language here apparently is Malay, which presumably uses the term “Allah” for God as a loan word from Arabic. In any event, Christians should have the religious freedom to call God whatever they want in whatever language.
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