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Happenings
Sekina Joseph
Many names for God
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 15 — Underlying the Global Ethic project is the basic conviction that there can be:
No peace among the nations without peace among the religions.
No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions.
No dialogue between the religions without research into the foundations of the religions.
If the foregoing are words of wisdom, why is then the word "Allah" universally known, spoken, understood and reverentially accepted from time immemorial to refer to GOD, allowed to be hijacked.
In every corner of the earth people are free to practice and use their languages or even mint new words, to form new vocabulary. In Malaysia, it is my understanding that, the Malay word for God is "Allah" and Lord is "Tuhan" and the word "Allah" has been around and used extensively in every nook and corner of the world for centuries.
In the Roman Catholic churches in Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Melayu has been used in worship, prayer and song for long by Christians and it is indeed unfortunate that the Federal Government of Malaysia has only recently officially banned non-Muslims in Malaysia from using the word "Allah". This is tantamount to telling Christians or Catholics who speak in Bahasa Malaysia not to call their Creator as God.
For 15 centuries or so, Christians and Muslims in Arabic-speaking countries have been using the word "Allah" in reference to the One God. The Catholic Church in Malaysia and Indonesia and the vast majority of other Christian denominations hold that "Allah" is the legitimate word for "God" in Bahasa Malaysia.
It would be a considered opinion of right thinking people that the word "Allah" is not exclusive to the religion of Islam both as a matter of faith and as a matter of the use of language, as it was used before the advent of Islam by Arabic Christians.
In many churches in Malaysia, English, Tagalog, Mandarin, Cantonese, Burmese, Vietnamese, Tamil, Malayalam, Bahasa Malaysia, Iban, Kadazan and Bahasa Indonesia are used and to think that worship, prayer and song is only in English is not accurate.
We take individual responsibility for all we do. All our decisions, actions, and failures to act have consequences.
We must treat others as we wish others to treat us.
Keywords
God Allah Christian Religion Church
No peace among the nations without peace among the religions.
No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions.
No dialogue between the religions without research into the foundations of the religions.
If the foregoing are words of wisdom, why is then the word "Allah" universally known, spoken, understood and reverentially accepted from time immemorial to refer to GOD, allowed to be hijacked.
In every corner of the earth people are free to practice and use their languages or even mint new words, to form new vocabulary. In Malaysia, it is my understanding that, the Malay word for God is "Allah" and Lord is "Tuhan" and the word "Allah" has been around and used extensively in every nook and corner of the world for centuries.
In the Roman Catholic churches in Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Melayu has been used in worship, prayer and song for long by Christians and it is indeed unfortunate that the Federal Government of Malaysia has only recently officially banned non-Muslims in Malaysia from using the word "Allah". This is tantamount to telling Christians or Catholics who speak in Bahasa Malaysia not to call their Creator as God.
For 15 centuries or so, Christians and Muslims in Arabic-speaking countries have been using the word "Allah" in reference to the One God. The Catholic Church in Malaysia and Indonesia and the vast majority of other Christian denominations hold that "Allah" is the legitimate word for "God" in Bahasa Malaysia.
It would be a considered opinion of right thinking people that the word "Allah" is not exclusive to the religion of Islam both as a matter of faith and as a matter of the use of language, as it was used before the advent of Islam by Arabic Christians.
In many churches in Malaysia, English, Tagalog, Mandarin, Cantonese, Burmese, Vietnamese, Tamil, Malayalam, Bahasa Malaysia, Iban, Kadazan and Bahasa Indonesia are used and to think that worship, prayer and song is only in English is not accurate.
We take individual responsibility for all we do. All our decisions, actions, and failures to act have consequences.
We must treat others as we wish others to treat us.
KeywordsGod Allah Christian Religion Church
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