As has been mentioned in this blog in the past, some misguided Christians, casting desperately around for a 'tolerant Muslim state', fall upon Malaya as, in Tony Blairs words "“having [set] a very good example of interfaith cooperation”.
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| Malay Christian Herald Censored |
However they are simply deluding themselves. Malaya is increasingly becoming an intolerant Muslim state as the "Allah" row has shown.
The argument arose when the Government imposed a ban on a Catholic newspaper, The Herald, using the word 'Allah' in place of 'God' in its Malay-language edition. The paper went to, court and got the Kuala Lumpur High Court to strike down the three-year old ban on non-Muslims using of the word.
The paper argued that in the native language, 'Allah' was simply the word for 'God' and had no particular religious connotation. They also pointed out that they had been using the word 'Allah' in that context for decades. And there the matter should have rested, especially after some Muslim organisations including the Islamic political party, PAS, agreed with the decision, by indicating that the other Abrahamic religions (Christianity and Judaism) may use the word.
However, as always with Muslims, violence is never far away, and sure enough some mosques incited protests, and issued threats, with Ahmad Johari, at the National Mosque telling the Associated Press news agency "I hope the court will understand the feeling of the majority Muslims of Malaysia, we can fight to the death over this issue."
This statement was followed by three churches being attacked in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, and further attacks have since occurred, but while the government has condemned the attacks, they have also appealed against the court verdict and the High Court has suspended the decision's implementation.
On a side note, the Muslim Youth Movement, Abim, have cast the use of the word Allah as a surreptitious effort on the part of Christians to try to seduce Muslims away from Islam.
If this ridiculous claim true, it would also beg the question of:
- Just how many Muslims would like to change faiths?
- Are they so easily seduced from Islam?
- Or is it the violent little bigots who seem to control the religion, who drive people to want to leave?
- What sort of religion or 'Allah' is it, who has to threaten violence to keep people from leaving?
These attacks on Christians and Christianity occur across the Islamic world (and have virtually eradicated Christianity in Turkey and the 'Holy Land'), and on Christmas Eve in Egypt at least six Coptic Christians were killed in a drive-by shooting outside a church in southern Egypt.
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