Dec. 31, Online
A Malaysian court has ruled that Christians have the constitutional right to use the word Allah in reference to God. The Kuala Lumpur High Court also said a government ban on non-Muslims using the word was illegal. A Christian group hailed the ruling Thursday as a victory of freedom of religion in the Muslim-majority country, where the issue has become a symbol of religious grievances of minority groups.
Your comments:
The word is derived from “The Sole Deity” from Semitic languages, which include Hebrew, Syriac, Aramaic, and pre-Islamic Arabic. Islam is a system of belief, not a race, nation or language.
To equate everything Arabic with everything Islamic is misleading, as they are two different things.
Plus if the authorities really did go to schools with Islamic curricula, they would know well that pagan Arabs, before the birth of Muhammad, called their gods Allah and goddesses Allat. Yes, it should be in your religious history textbooks. Look it up.
Ruby
Jakarta
This ruling is a victory of freedom over institutional persecution. It is outrageous that the Malaysian Home Ministry dares to dictate religion to the masses by forcing the Catholic newspaper Herald not to use the word Allah.
Don’t Christians, Jews and Muslims worship the same God? At least the High Court has some sense of justice and fairness.
This shows they are not completely dominated by the ruling UMNO party, which has ruled Malaysia for 52 years.
This shows there is some hope of resisting total domination by UMNO. All fair-minded and
God-believing people should rejoice at this landmark victory over religious bigotry. Hallelujah.
Andrew Lim
Dunedin, New Zealand
Good news from the Muslim world. What a rare show of courage. Thanks.
Edi Rey
Switzerland
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