Malaysian Insider: A letter to a Muslim friend

A letter to a Muslim friend

JAN 19 — Recently, someone whom I consider a very close and trusted friend, and who is a Muslim, wrote an email to me with a very simple question: “What was The Herald asking for exactly?”

As someone who knew what the issue was from the start, having once been a freelance contributor to The Herald, I gathered my thoughts and spoke to a few relevant people and started writing down the facts of the whole issue.

Instead of the creative and open writing style that is normally employed in any article, I decided to keep it strictly to the point with the facts itself, following the style of a former prime minister whose blog name is one letter short of the anagram for the word “CHEATED”, which is rather ironic since many of us still feel that way over events of the past 28 years.

Anyway, this was my letter to that Muslim friend.

Dear brother Malaysian,
I wish all Muslims (and even some non-Muslims) were like you, stopping to ask what the issue was instead of playing straight into the tactics of people (and some media) who have personal and political agendas. Here are the facts of the issue, which I am sure will answer your question easily.

1. The Herald has been around for more than 15 years.
   
2. The Herald was first published in English only.
   
3. By the late 1990s, there already was a Bahasa Malaysia edition, which occasionally contained the term “Allah”.
   
4. Upon request, and to meet growing demand, Tamil and Chinese editions were added simply to allow Catholics who were more familiar with those two languages to have their community news and spiritual guidance explained for their better understanding. These editions covered a few pages respectively.
   
5. Likewise, the thousands of East Malaysian students in government universities in Peninsula Malaysia, who are active in the Catholic Students Society in their respective universities, had requested to have pages added in Bahasa Malaysia (BM).
   
6. These East Malaysians students over the past 15 years were naturally those who were educated completely under the Bahasa Malaysia medium and with little exposure to English (for the majority of them).
   
7. In addition to the students, thousands of East Malaysians have been flocking to the Klang Valley for better prospects and simply to “cari makan”, just like other Malaysians from all over the peninsula. Again, the majority would be BM-educated and more comfortable worshiping in Bahasa Malaysia than in English.
   
8. Like for the Tamil and Chinese editions, the East Malaysians naturally wanted the Bahasa Malaysia edition to be about their own community news, besides some local and global Catholic church news translated from English to Bahasa Malaysia.
   
9. Bahasa Malaysia was, after all, their common denominator, i.e. the national language, propagated by the government themselves over all other languages since the late 1970s (hmmm . . . I wonder who was the education minister who started it all).
   
10. The East Malaysians themselves wrote the original content and translated some of the English pages in The Herald to Bahasa Malaysia. One can easily surmise this from the writers’ by-lines as well as from the “Letters to the Editor” in the Bahasa Malaysia edition since its beginnings, around 12 years ago.
    
11. If these East Malaysians used “Allah” in their praise and worship all their lives — as did their parents, grandparents and the generations before them — it would only be natural that they would write their articles and reflections, as well as do translations, using the only word they know for the “Lord our God”, the God of Abraham and Moses. The one Almighty God.
    
12. The word “Allah” was never and will never be used to refer to Jesus in any Bahasa Malaysia translation. That is one blatant piece of misinformation that so many peninsula Malaysian Muslims have been wrongly led to believe.
    
13. When former Home Minister Datuk Syed Hamid Albar imposed a blanket ban on the use of the word “Allah” in The Herald, as well as on imported Christian Bibles and other literature in both print and multimedia formats from Indonesia, the church appealed.
    
14. After appeals and all other avenues failed, the Catholic Church had no choice but to go to court because it is a basic deprivation of human rights in not allowing East Malaysian Christians the right to worship God in a manner they have used to worship Him all their lives and for generations past.
    
15. The Herald just wants the right for their Klang Valley-based East Malaysian readers to practise their faith, and share their community information, while learning about their own faith, in the only language they share, being as they are from various Bumiputera groups, and as how they have been practicing it all these years.
    
16. The Herald is only sold within church grounds, and has also complied with government requests to have “TERHAD (restricted)” and “FOR NON-MUSLIMS ONLY” on the cover, even if it was never to be sold or distributed outside church grounds in the first place.
    
17. The greatest lie being repeated over and over again, by ministers, morally-corrupt politicians, some Muslim scholars, some government-controlled media as well as misinformed members of the public is that the church started using the term “Allah” in The Herald since only a few years ago.
    
18. The other great lie is that the term is also intended for use in the English edition.
    

Thanks again for asking your very important question, my brother.

Please do enlighten your fellow Muslim brothers and sisters on how it all started and why it was a non-issue, then made into an issue by the government, and now has become the biggest possible threat to Malaysian unity, peace and harmony, after more than 50 years of independence.

Thanks.
Take care and God bless.

*The views written here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Malaysian Insider-Rusalina Idrus: Malaysia as a role model of what not to do

Malaysia as a role model of what not to do — Rusaslina Idrus

JAN 15 — Malaysia has once again set itself as a benchmark. This time a benchmark of what not to emulate: following recent attacks on churches in Malaysia, Indonesian Muslim organisations called on their followers not to copy the attacks that took place in Malaysia.

The chairman of Indonesia’s Muhammadiyah, Dr Din Syamsuddin, was reported in The Straits Times as saying, “We have issued a reminder to all our members and Muslims at large to be tolerant and not to be influenced by what is happening in Malaysia.”

In response to a Malaysian High Court ruling on Dec 31 overturning the ban against the use of the word “Allah” by the Herald, nine churches have been attacked by firebombs or vandalised in Malaysia in the past week.

Malaysia, up until more recent events, had been a shining example of a moderate Muslim country. Religious tolerance and ethnic diversity were proud markers of identity for the nation.

Malaysians proudly point out to foreign tourists that mosques, temples, and churches can very often be found on the same street. Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, and Christmas are celebrated with equal vigour.

Muslims in Malaysia get upset reading about violence elsewhere perpetrated in the name of Islam. We shake our heads at religious conflicts in the Middle East and South Asia, and even Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Muslims in Malaysia lament about how these countries are giving Islam a bad name. Malaysians are grateful we are not such. Recent events, however, have changed this. From the cow’s head incident — in which a Muslim mob desecrated the head of a cow, a sacred animal for Hindus, in protest over the construction of a Hindu temple nearby — to the alarming attacks on churches in the recent furore over the use of “Allah” by Christians, Malaysia sadly has now turned from being a role model of tolerance to a model of intolerance.

There has been widespread and continued global coverage of the developments in Malaysia. Earlier this week, the BBC reported “Malaysia church attacks continue in use of ‘Allah’” row; The Washington Post reads “Church attacks in Malaysia deepen racial tension”; Reuters UK posted “Malaysian Christians fearful as church attacks rise”. An article in the Guardian titled “Malaysian church attacked with firebombs” quoted one of the 300 Muslim protestors who gathered last Friday to protest the High Court judgment stating, “We can fight to the death over this issue.”

This is how the world is viewing Malaysia: a church-burning, intolerant, Muslim country.

The heinous acts carried out by a small extremist minority have given Muslims in Malaysia a bad name, and not only that, Malaysia has turned into one of “those” Muslim countries that gives everyone else in the Islamic world a bad name.

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) was compelled to issue a press statement commending the Malaysian High Court decision and called on to the Malaysian government “to maintain the tradition of tolerance and uphold the religious freedom of Christians and to let the court ruling stand.”
ISNA also urged “Muslim NGOs to respect Islamic teachings and long-held Islamic traditions, and to withdraw their opposition to the use of the word ‘Allah’ by their Christian compatriots.”

Most Malaysians are appalled by the church attacks. It is encouraging to note many Muslim organisations and leaders in Malaysia have publicly repudiated the attacks, calling it the work of an extremist set.

There are varying theories as to who might be behind these attacks and speculations continue as Malaysians shake their heads in disbelief that such things can happen in our peace-loving country. Yet, what is clear is that these acts did not occur in a vacuum.

While the government has publicly renounced the attacks and affirmed religious freedom in the country, the fact of the matter is that an environment of racial and religious intolerance has been seething in the backdrop — with government actions, at times, throwing fuel into the fire. Lina Joy, Moorthy, Kartika, and the cow’s head incident, are a few of the examples of rising religious intolerance in this country.

While Muslims in Malaysia are angry at the acts of violence carried out this past week, many continue to shout protest against the use of the word “Allah”, murmuring conspiracy of stealth proselytising by Christians insisting on the right to use the word “Allah.”

Many continue to reject the fact that Malay Muslims do not have copyright on “Allah”— an Arabic word that means “God”— and that this word has long been used by Christians in Arab speaking and Arabic language influenced countries. The first complete Bible in Malay printed in 1733 used the word “Allah” as did subsequent versions over the centuries.

Earlier this week, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom called for church leaders to withdraw from using “Allah” urging them “to be wary and responsible towards peace and security in Malaysia.” This call is not only shocking but irresponsible; acquiescing to the demands of the Muslim extremist signals positive affirmation to acts of violence.

Next time an opinion differs over inter-faith matters, another firebomb will be dropped. It is a slippery slope from here. Thank Allah that no one was hurt (physically); we may not be so lucky next time.

Malaysians need to stand up and stop this spiral of intolerance and hatred. We need to do more than renounce the attacks and shake our heads at the news, we need to reject the politicisation of faith, we need to say no to politicians using religion as a divide and rule strategy, and we need to be open to interfaith relations instead of being suspicious of others. Only then can we return to a country known as a model of plurality and tolerance, rather than a church-burning country.

* The author is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

* This article is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

Keruah Usit-Malaysiakini: From the ashes of fires lit by racist politicians

From the ashes of fires lit by racist politicians

Keruah Usit
Jan 13, 10, 10:35am

How should Malaysia respond to this spate of cowardly attacks on places of worship? What is the way forward? Decent, reasonable Malaysians are divided in their views.

Some Christian spokemen want peace at all cost. They entreat the Catholic weekly Herald, to 'turn the other cheek', and to stop using the word 'Allah' in its Bahasa Malaysia section, even though Sabah and Sarawak Christians have used the word for generations.

 
This gives rise to a troubling thought. The editor of Herald, Father Andrew Lawrence (left) and other Malaysians like him (Muslim and non-Muslim alike) have stuck their necks out, in a collective attempt to build a plural, inclusive nation.

These courageous Malaysians refuse to nod their heads in rhythm to the jarring 1Malaysia tune. One people, one nation, one leader? We have heard all that before.

It seems perfectly all right to turn one's own cheek when struck, but would it not be somewhat presumptuous to instruct other people to take abuse and look the other way?

At any rate, Christian moral teachings can hardly be boiled down to this single statement, 'turn the other cheek', interpreted identically in all possible situations. The history of Christianity is full of defiant rebels as well as stoic hermits - and pragmatic men of the world.

There are, of course, the usual diatribes urging retaliation: 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'. This is stupid. Any violent response by Christians would be wrong, and would play straight into the hands of the Umno warlords.

Who stands to gain the most?

The New York Times quoted Pakatan Rakyat de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim as saying: "This is the last hope - to incite racial and religious sentiments to cling to power...since the disastrous defeat in the March 2008 general election, they have been fanning this."

Many observers say Umno has behaved shamefully, in tacitly supporting protests against the Dec 31, 2009 Kuala Lumpur High Court decision, that overturned the Home Ministry's ban on the use of the word 'Allah' by Herald.

Who stands to gain the most from this conflict? Umno's very existence hangs in the balance. Survival depends on the Malay vote. We should not be surprised that Umno is straining every sinew to achieve 'Malay unity', since the split in the Malay vote helped put Pakatan in power in five states initially.

Umno's chieftains must have calculated that the prospective gain it stands to make from championing 'Malay solidarity' against some imagined, bogus threat from Malay-educated Christians, might outweigh any loss in support from non-Muslim voters.

 
After all, the politics of race is the politics of 'counting heads', as Malaysiakini columnist Sim Kwang Yang has pointed out. Malays make up 60 percent of the population and wield even greater influence in elections, thanks to Umno-friendly constituency gerrymandering, and a disproportionate rural vote weightage.

Umno appears to have discounted the political voice of Sabah and Sarawak Christians, who make up 47 percent of the population in the two states. Indeed, Sarawak and Sabah ministers kept eerily silent over the use of 'Allah', before the firebombs.

Even after the attacks, they could say nothing more than meaningless platitudes. According to the Borneo Post, Federal minister Peter Chin, ignoring the High Court's decision, urged Sarawakians "to let Prime Minister Najib handle the use of the word 'Allah' by Christians...We need to cool down and let the PM deal with the matter. He has said he has ways to resolve the matter".

The authoritarian control exerted by the Sabah and Sarawak governments, and the RTM domination of information arriving at scattered rural communities, are powerful tools indeed. The deep-rooted tradition of buying votes from an impoverished population may also soothe any fears of a backlash in the coming elections.

Umno's history of brinkmanship

Many Malaysians are concerned that the vandalism of churches may turn out to be another racial 'crisis' manufactured in preparation for a crackdown to allow a strongman to consolidate power.

These incidents have littered our political history, from the May 13 massacres that swept Najib Abdul Razak's father to power in 1969, to the rabid protests against Chinese schools (led by Najib as Umno Youth leader) in 1987, that preceded Mahathir's Operasi Lalang.

A local commentator speculates that Umno might use the religious unrest created by the church attacks to declare emergency law in Selangor, the eye of the storm. The first three attacks on churches certainly appeared to be planned and co-ordinated.

If Umno could seize power, it would then achieve its publicly declared ambition of taking back Perak and Selangor, two of the wealthiest states in the federation.

It remains clear that the hysteria surrounding the use of the word 'Allah' is a political, and not a religious, issue. In December 2007, the Home Ministry sent a fax to Lawrence, reversing its earlier decision to ban the use of the word 'Allah' in Herald.

 
This fax preceded the 12th general election by four months. The Home Ministry, run at the time by Umno's Syed Hamid Albar (left), saw nothing wrong in the use of the word 'Allah' by the Catholic newspaper. Two years later, we have come full circle.

It is conceivable that Umno has simply returned to form. Revoking an unjust ban did not appear to help it win votes in 2008, so it has now turned to a tried and tested monologue of hatred and bad faith.

The recent wave of racial venom emanating from Utusan Malaysia and its allies, protests against a Hindu temple using a severed cow's head, and now the defacement of Christian churches, may be seen as Umno's latest experiment in 're-branding', to distinguish itself from less racist parties like the PKR and PAS.

When politicians play with fire, other people's fingers get burnt.

A way forward

In order to move forward, we must reverse and oppose the damage done to our national fabric. Malaysians' refusal to take the bait and stage a violent response is laudable, and crucial.

Rejecting racist parties will be our way forward. Rebuilding crippled institutions, including the judiciary and the police, is another important step.

Over the years, Umno has shown the same disdain for the courts as the hackers who recently hacked the Malaysian judiciary's website, and threatened the nation's judges over the High Court's decision. (The police, as usual, are still investigating.)

National reform can only begin if Sabah and Sarawak Barisan Nasional, Umno's loyal supporters, are defeated in elections. Pakatan's clumsy efforts to gain support in these states will not succeed unless it commits resources at the community and grassroots level.

Pakatan will have to buckle down to earn trust and spread information, previously denied, to the rural populations. And finally, a genuine, concerted effort at inter-faith dialogue can bridge the gaps between religions. PKR and PAS have begun this difficult task with Christian groups.

Only if we move together on this path, can we hope that something worthwhile will rise from the ashes of these fires lit by racist politicians.

KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist - 'anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia'. This weekly column is an effort to provide a voice for marginalised Malaysians. Keruah Usit can be contacted at keruah_usit@yahoo.com.

Malaysiakini: 'Allah' row: Who is threatening whom?

'Allah' row: Who is threatening whom?

Dr Lim Teck Ghee
Jan 6, 10
6:19pm

The Dec 31 High Court ruling reversing a Home Ministry ban on the use of the word 'Allah' for the Catholic weekly newsletter 'Herald' in its Bahasa Malaysia section appears to have given the religious hardliners the perfect New Year present to continue their crude campaign aimed at fanning Islamic religious sentiments in the country.
Malaysians – those not religiously affiliated to Catholicism or Islam – are wondering if the extremist reaction by Utusan Malaysia and its fellow travellers serves any purpose, especially since the prime minister has assured that the government is aware of the sensitivities of Muslims, and called for calm and for the matter to be resolved through the court process.

Below is an example of what Utusan has been feeding the Malay public (from Utusan Malaysia, Jan 3).

Starting from the banner splashed across its front page and items filling up pages two, four and five, the paper ran headlines and opinions ranging from 'Court does not respect sensitivities of Muslims'; to inexplicably calling for the civil case to be heard in Syariah Court; to appealing for Muslim unity; suggesting for the Religious Affairs Department to act as intervener in the court process; and beseeching intervention by the Council of Malay Rulers.

The tally of 16 news articles does not include other lengthy op-eds in the middle pages about the mission to defend Islam, including one by Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah. The flagship Utusan editorial by Awang Selamat invoked Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria's claim that 'all these happen due to the weaknesses and disunity of Muslims'.

Playing Cassandra, Awang Selamat proclaimed that the Malay 'discord and foolhardiness in politics, has pushed Islam to the corner', and added, 'It is embarrassing that Islamic parties cannot unite in ensuring the survival of Islam'. He laid the blame at the door of 'certain liberal- thinking leaders in PAS like Khalid Samad, who is a great supporter of the use of the term 'Allah' by other religions'.

In what is probably the single most fear-mongering statement made by a newspaperman, Awang Selamat made the absolutely ridiculous claim that 'status quo Islam di Malaysia boleh berubah bila-bila masa kerana angkara pemimpin Islam sendiri' (the status quo of Islam in Malaysia can change at any time because of Muslim leaders themselves).

My other distinct impression is that Utusan and the racial and religious hardliners aligned to it – and that appears to include Dr Mahathir Mohamad – are spoiling for a fight. They should not and will not get a fight. What they are getting instead is reasoned and calm arguments on why this issue should not be blown out of proportion.

According to 'Herald' editor Father Lawrence Andrew, Christian natives in Borneo have been using the term 'Allah' for 400 years and clearly long before Sabah and Sarawak agreed to merge with the peninsula. Hence, it is quite simply a matter of language and terminology which has nothing to do whatsoever with the ridiculous suspicions and concerns of backdoor conversions and worse that are now being bandied about.

Sane and sensible Malaysians following the ugly and pugnacious words coming from the extremist side must be wondering how in God's name could Muslims perceive that there is a threat to Islam in Malaysia given Malay and Muslim dominance in almost all sectors of the body polity.

According to the Catholic Hierarchy organization, there are about 784,000 Catholics in our country of 24.74 million or 3.17% of the total population. Can anyone believe that such a tiny minority of the country's population could threaten the position of Islam in Malaysia or undermine the Islamic faith?

Mahathir, from whom one would expect a higher sense of public responsibility, has been reported to have said that he is concerned that the term 'Allah' may be used in such a way that could inflame the anger of Muslims, or in his own words, 'they may use it on banners or write something that might not reflect Islam'. This is a statement that stoops so low that it is almost beyond belief that it could have come from a former prime minister.

Surely the ex-prime minister is aware that not only are there 13.37 million Muslims in the country or 52% of the population of 25.72 million if the latest 'CIA World Fact Book' is to be believed. The primacy of the position of Islam is fully guaranteed both through Islam's status as the religion of the federation enshrined in the constitution, and the position of the Yang Di Pertuan Agong and Malay state rulers as heads of the religion.

If he is not, then other Muslims in the country should tell 'Utusan', Mahathir and others of similar ilk how confident and secure they feel about their religion in the face of this 'historic' and 'unprecedented' threat from non-Muslims.

The real threat to Islam is in the feverish minds of the extremists rushing to prove their 'purer' Islamic credentials. If they can purge themselves of these imagined furies, we will all be able to sleep more peacefully in Malaysia.