Let God in any names it call be God

Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Wednesday, 27th January 2010

Last November the Malaysian government refused to release 10,000 Bibles it had seized because they contained the word Allah to refer to God. The Herald, a publication of the Roman Catholic Church in Malaysia, challenged the government's decision to ban for non-Muslims the use of the word Allah to refer to God. In December, a Malaysian court ruled that such a ban was unconstitutional. The court's decision provoked anger among some Muslims. The Times reported a speaker in a Kuala Lumpur mosque as saying, "We will not allow the word Allah to be inscribed in your churches. Heresy arises from words wrongly used. Allah is only for us." A few Muslims unfortunately went further and attacked churches, badly damaging some of them. Such actions are condemnable as they contradict normative Islam.

Many Muslims erroneously believe they have monopoly over the use of the word Allah, asserting that the Christian God is different from the Muslim God. And yet, normative Islam insists that there is "No God but God," meaning there cannot be a God for Christians and a different God for Muslims.

One of the church that was badly damaged after it was attacked by extremist muslims in Malaysia

Attempts by Malaysian officials to explain the logic behind the initial ban and why the government is now opposing the high court's ruling have been far from convincing. The best analyses point out this unusual move by the ruling UNMO government had less to do with theology and more to do with the ruling political coalition keeping control. The fact that politicians were fanning the flames of passion is hardly news. But it does point to a troubling underlying fact that many Muslims erroneously believe they have monopoly over the use of the word Allah - in essence, asserting that the Christian God is different from the Muslim God. This is oxymoronic because normative Islam insists that there is no God but God, meaning there cannot be a God for Christians and a different God for Muslims.

In A Common Word Between Us and You: An Open Letter and Call from Muslim Religious Leaders, issued in October 2007 to "Leaders of Christian Churches, everywhere," acknowledges that the theologies of Christianity and Islam differ from each other on key points. Yet, when this Muslim-authored document speaks of "God", the word denotes the subject and object of Christian worship, too. This pan-Muslim call for dialogue and cooperation is predicated on the notion that the ground shared by Muslims and Christians is located in our respective scriptural mandates to love God and neighbor. Five distinguished Malaysian scholars and government officials were among the original signatories of A Common Word.

While, in the American context, we don't have legislatures reserving vocabulary for the exclusive use of one religion, we certainly have had occasions of suspicion-casting over matters of God-Talk. It finds its way regularly into political campaigns. Each of us have encountered it in venues where we have been asked to speak about Christian-Muslim relations. Both of us have had to deal with Christians who say of Muslims, "They worship a different god;" or, "there is some question as whether their god is the same as ours." Much of the internet back-and-forth about this reveals considerable ignorance (about the writer's own religion, let alone the religion she or he is criticizing).

To our way of thinking, however, discussions as to whether Christians and Muslim "worship the same God" are, even when well-articulated, based on an ill-founded premise. To ask whether another group "worship the same God as we" is to imply that there are indeed at least two gods. The technical term for such a stance is henotheism - i.e., the notion that there may be more than one god, but only one of them works for me (or, for my group). On the other hand, Muslims and Christians (and Jews, Sikhs, Bahá'ís, Zoroastrians) all claim to be monotheists; and, the logical corollary of monotheism, "belief that there is but one God", is that, no matter who is praying, only one Possibility is listening, whichever way that Ultimate Listener is named or described.

The vast majority of religions do operate from a presumption that there is an Ultimate-a single Source. Most Americans, regardless of their religion, are happy to employ the English word God when referring to this. However, each theistic religion has its own theology-its own way of describing God and God's relationship to the physical and spiritual realms. God may have many names, and concepts of the spiritual realm may be quite complex. Yet God is God; Allah is God; God is Allah. For the love of neighbor, may we be willing to affirm that - whatever language we use?

Mupok Aku

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The above article which has been published in http://www.altmuslim.com/ on 27th January 2010 was written by Professor Parvez Ahmed, a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. He is Associate Professor of Finance at the University of North Florida. Dr. Lucinda Mosher, is a consultant and educator on inter-religious matters. She is the author of the book series Faith in the Neighborhood.

Buklittunggal.com would like to ask for sincere apology from Professor Parvez for publshing the article without his prior approval.

Four Nab Over Mosque Arson In Muar

Kuala Lumpur
Saturday, 23 January 2010

Four men, one of whom is a son of a police officer, were arrested today over the arson attempts at two suraus in Muar, Johor on Jan 21, according to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar.

In the attacks on Thursday, the Sirratulrahim Surau in Kampung Sabak Awor, Jalan Ismail suffered burns to a window and some curtains, while another surau in Parit Beting was also badly damaged, with scorch marks found on a door, a window, and carpet.

A police forensics team which took evidence at the first surau discovered traces of splashed kerosense at the site, leading to suspicions that the fires were intentionally set.

Political leaders have been quick in condemning the attacks in Johor.

Via a statement, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng slammed “the destructive behaviour of the perpetrator of such irresponsible attacks, who clearly intended to provoke suspicions among our multi-racial and multi-religious communities”.

Whoever these culprits are they must be punished. Their irresponsible acts can cause racial/religious unrest in this nation. ..Bukittunggal.com

The latest attacks come on the back of a lull in tempers following a Dec 31, 2009 High Court ruling that allowed Catholic weekly Herald to use the term “Allah” to describe the Christian God in their Bahasa Malaysia section.

The ruling sparked Muslim outrage across the country, as some Muslims claim that the term “Allah” is exclusive to Islam and must not be used by anyone else.

In the wake of the on-going controversy and prior to Thursday’s attacks, nine churches, a mosque, a surau, a Sikh temple and a convent school have been damaged by fire, paint or stones since Jan 8.

The government has appealed against the decision and obtained a stay of execution.

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‘Allah’ Row in Malaysia: Why Christians Have Greater Rights to Use ‘Allah’

Article By M. A. Khan
Publish On Friday, 15th January 2010

In Malaysia, Muslims are waging a raging, and potentially dangerous, campaign to own exclusive copyright to use the word 'Allah'.

The controversy has been brewing since 2007, when Muslim fanatics protested against the use of ‘Allah’ to denote ‘God’ in Christian literature and publications. The Malaysian government, to appease the fanatics, banned the Catholic Herald, a Malaysian Catholic weekly, for using the word ‘Allah’. Dr. Mahathir Muhammad, the longest-serving Malaysian ex-premier, under whom Malaysia underwent progressive Islamization, supported the ban. To him, the word ‘Allah’ belongs to Muslims alone.

It’s worthy noting that Christians in Malaysia have been using the word ‘Allah’ in Malay-language Bibles since the 1800s.

The Catholic Herald initiated a legal battle not only against the ban on its publication, but also on its age-old right to use the term ‘Allah’.

Authorities in Malaysia confiscated 15,000 copies of the Bible from Christians in late 2009 for containing the word ‘Allah’.

And, as of latest, Malaysian High Court overturned the ban on Catholic Herald on December 31, 2009. It also ruled that it was the constitutional right for the Herald to use the word “Allah”.

The ruling that literally allows non-Muslims to use ‘Allah’ enraged Muslims and the ruling party activists.Dr. Mahathir, leading a backlash against the court ruling, wrote: “The solution to the controversy will not be achieved by making an appeal to the court. Such a sensitive issue cannot be solved through law.”

He added that non-Muslims “may use it on banners or write something that might not reflect Islam”, thereby, potentially inflaming Muslims’ anger.

Such statements—some inflammatory, others mixed—by the ruling party politicians and ministers, including the current Prime Minister and Home Minister, unraveled days of protests setting the stage for a huge demonstration on Friday, January 8, 2010. Surprisingly, the Home Ministry, on the one hand, overruled the High Court ruling on Wednesday, January 6, while also approved Friday’s mass demonstration on the ruling.

And, at the end of the demonstration, as generally occurs all over the Muslim world, fanatic Muslim mobs burned down three churches. On Saturday another church was attacked, while two more on Sunday, bringing the total number of churches to six. It’s probably just the beginning unless the Christians relent on their demand.

Similar to Muslims’ claim of exclusivity to use ‘Allah’, ever since I left Islam and started writing critically of Islam, I have been told, too often, by angry Muslims to give up my Islamic name.

The question is: What exactly constitutes an Islamic name?

Being born and raised as a Muslim, my first name is of Persian, middle name of Arabic and last name of Mongolian/Turkic origin. Which of these languages was an invention of Islam—that is, invented by Allah, Muhammad or a Muslim? The answer, irrefutably, is “none”.

None of the languages we humans speak today were invented by Islam. Instead, they have Pagan roots. We, the ex-Muslim and humanists, who believe in complete equality of all humans with their diversity in ethnicity, language and culture, have a greater right to inheritance to secular human innovations, such as any modern-day language, than do Muslims.

It is not for us ex-Muslims to give up our names, given by our parents; instead, Muslims, who believe in exclusivity, should invent a new language or naming system and use them than shamelessly demanding copyright on something, to whose creation and evolution, they, their prophet, Muhammad, or their God, Allah, have made little or no contribution.The same goes to Muslims’ claim of exclusivity to the right of using the term ‘Allah’.

The term ‘Allah’ was not created by the Islamic God, or Muhammad or any Muslim. The Pagans of Arabia had been using ‘Allah’ to denote ‘God’ for hundreds, probably for thousands, of years before Islam’s birth.

Muhammad’s father’s name was Abdullah (Abd-Allah), meaning ‘slave of Allah’, while his greatest opponent in Medina—repeated labeled as “hypocrite” by Islamic Allah in the Quran, although he was a great humanist—was also named Abdullah (Abdullah ibn Obayi). This proves beyond doubt that it is from pre-Islamic Pagan usage did Muhammad incorporate the term ‘Allah’ into Islam.
What is important to realize is that it is Christians, now being barred from using the term ‘Allah’ in Malaysia, who have greater rights to its use than do Muslims. It is because Christians, who had penetrated into Arabia centuries before Islam, had adopted the term ‘Allah’. In other words, Christians of the Middle East have been using ‘Allah’ to denote ‘God’ since centuries before the coming of Islam. Middle Eastern Christians continue to use ‘Allah’ as well as Arabic names today.

Given that Christians adopted the term ‘Allah’ before Islam’s birth, they onviously hold greater legal rights to its use than do Muslims, definitely much greater than Malaysian Muslims, who were forced into Islam very late (16th century onward). If anything, it is Muslims, who must relinquish the use of ‘Allah’, or Arabic name. Instead, they have or are, absolutely shamelessly and illegitimately, putting an ‘Islamic seal’ of copyright on them.

And here lies Islam’s debilitating impact on human beings, who turn Muslims. When a people do not create a thing, but demand copyright over it—that too, with violence—it kills their urge to creativity. Such people can never be creative and contributory to society. And this fact is so glaringly in display in the Muslim world by its backwardness in every sphere of human development and progress.

Here also lies the fact as to why the Islamic world is turning to humanity’s worst nightmare. Muhammad usurped innovations of others into his creed, and, at the same time, violently coerced those people into Islam, or exterminated them.

It affects humanity in two ways: first, forcing the otherwise creative people (non-Muslims) into Islam through coercion turns uncreative, while exterminating them straightaway reduces the world’s creative pool of brains. Humanity, and its progress and development, thus, become stunted, a victim.

We have seen, in the post-colonial Islamic world, as a continuation of Muhammad’s legacy, the pool of creative non-Muslim peoples are being reduced through coercive conversion or migration, thus, turning Islamic world into a barren desert in terms of creativity and contribution to civilization.

And Muhammad’s violent legacy is also turning the world’s Muslims into an increasing violent lot.

When we see violence by Muslims over their illegitimate claim to use ‘Allah’ to the exclusion of others occur in a country like Malaysia, the ‘alleged’ beacon of Islamic moderation, modernity and progressiveness, writing is clearly on the wall as to where humanity is heading to.

We are heading into an Age of Barbarism. Much of the Islamic world is already there with worsening trends, while the rest is heading there through rapid Islamization.

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