Thread by @uglyluhan

Why non-Muslims should be allowed to use #KalimahAllah

Response to every bad argument. Let me know if there are more

A directive from the Malaysian Home Ministry in 1986 first prohibited non-Muslim publications from using words like Allah, Kaabah, Baitullah and solat. The word Allah continued to be used by Christians, particularly in the Bornean states

It only really became an issue around 2007 when the government realised that the multilingual Catholic weekly The Herald uses the word Allah in its Malay section. The paper is in 4 languages reflecting the multi-ethnic local Christian population

m.malaysiakini.com/news/76316

The explanation given by then deputy internal security minister Johari Baharum demonstrates their weak rationale for the ban. According to him, Allah is an "Islamic word" because it comes from Arabic. For others to use it is simply "tidak betul". End of story

"Allah is an Islamic word"

No, it's an Arabic word. Cognates exist in other Semitic languages, and its origin predates Islam. It's still used by Arabic-speaking Christians, and the derivative Alla is the word for God in the language of predominantly Catholic Malta

"Ilah is the Arabic word for God, but Allah is specifically for Islam"

Ilah is just the term for any deity. Allah, the definite form of the word ilah, is the supreme God. This is a mistake that only non-Arabs make

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1195481542677581825?s=19

"Yahweh is the Judeo-Christian God and Allah is the Muslim God"

God in Islam and Christianity created the word in 6 days, created Adam and Eve, sent the prophets Musa, Daud and Isa. There's no doubt these are the same being

The notion of "our God" and "their God" borders on polytheism and prevents a greater understanding of tawhid

"But only Muslims believe Allah is the name of God"

'Name' here is more of an epithet, as are the other "names of God" in Islam like ar-Rahim (most merciful) and al-Malik (the lord). As previously stated, Allah is not a proper name

"The interpretation of God in Christianity is different from Islam"

Religions may differ in particular conceptions of God, but it has always been traditionally accepted that God is the same in all Abramanic faiths

google.com/amp/s/www.dese…

That Muslims worship the same God as other Abramanic religions is in the Quran itself. There's never been any disagreement on this

islamawakened.com/quran/29/46/

Did you know who else thinks Allah isn't the same as the God of Christianity? Right-wing Christian bigots. They even claim Allah is Satan, or some kind of moon god. Banning Christians from saying Allah is no different

"Why can't Christians just use the word God"

They do, when speaking English. They only use Allah in Malay. Malaysian Christians don't normally use Allah when speaking English, but are fighting for the right to use it in Malay

This is one of the biggest misconceptions among local Islamofacists right now, who believe Christians are replacing every mention of God in the Bible with Allah, which would indeed be strange. Allah is ONLY used by Christians in BM, not other languages

https://twitter.com/isma_bangi/status/1370627662192939014?s=19

"Unlike Arabic, Allah in Malay and English has an Islamic connotation"

True, but it became sufficiently common that it was adopted even by animists, often used synonymously with Tuhan or Tohan. Animist Temuan are recorded as using Allah in 1887. It's gone beyond Islam already

"Malaysian Christians don't even use Malay. They mostly speak Chinese"

This is entirely an ignorant peninsular stereotype. 60% of Christians in Malaysia are bumis from Sarawak and Sabah. Even in semenanjung, the Christian population includes Malay-speaking Eurasians & Peranakan

Some Pick Me peninsular Christians have questioned the need for the use of Allah because "we're not speaking Arabic", forgetting that the majority of local Christians are in fact Malay-speaking bumiputera. Maybe you don't use BM in church or Bible talks, but others do

"Why do they suddenly need to use that word"

It's not sudden, it was the uneducated Bumno members and their supporters who suddenly discovered that the word was being used and got offended by it

https://twitter.com/Iqraq4/status/1370302300015661056?s=19

"I doubt that local Christians were using Allah when they were first converted by Europeans"

Actually they were. Malay translations of the Bible consistently used Allah for centuries

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20…

"But the translation is selective with words like Yesus and Yerusalem instead of Isa and Baitulmaqadis"

I've been told it may have been because those are less common and were possibly unfamiliar to the early translators

"That proves that the European translators didn't understand local culture"

Local animists who were exposed to Malays adopted the words Allah and Ta'ala for their own deities but remained animist. Did they not understand local culture?

Sometimes it goes beyond that. A few tribes even adopted the story of Adam & Eve, and use the names Brahim, Mohammed, and Iblis for characters in their mythology. Examples include the Temuan and Jah Hut

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1182572146658172928?s=19

"Why don't they use Tuhan"

Al-Kitab, the Malay-language Bible, uses Allah as a translation for God, and Tuhan for Lord. Why so? It's in the etymology. Remember that Al-Kitab isn't translated to Malay from English but from the original Hebrew and Greek

Hebrew terms for God like Elohi and Elohim are etymologically related to Allah, making it the closest thing in the Malay language. This is how proper translations are done, not like y'all translating deva as tuhan instead of dewa

Tuhan (meaning god) is a doublet of tuan (lord), both deriving from the Proto-Malayic word for either god or master. I feel this to be a very appropriate word for Lord in the Bible

To be fair, there are alternatives. In particular, Betara could've been used for Lord. But using any other word instead of Allah would detract from the translation and deny the relation between Christianity and Islam (which bigots on both sides do anyway)

Plus, this is consistent with orang asli usage of the term. Al-Kitab translates "the Lord your God" as "Tuhan Allahmu". The animist Semai similarly describe their god Jenong as "Tuhan Allah". Christians weren't just making stuff up

And anyway, regardless of how we feel about the translation today, the fact is what we have now is what's been established in the local Christian community for hundreds of years, and nobody got butthurt about it til recently. So ask yourself mengapa baru sekarang

"Couldn't they please just use an Aramaic or Hebrew word instead and be closer to Jesus that way"

Those words have never been part of the Malay language, and I see no reason to adopt them when appropriate terms are already available

"Why the love for Arabic words then"

As previously stated, the influence wasn't seen as Arabic because Allah has become part of the Malay lexicon. The animists who adopted those terms weren't influenced by Arabs, nor were the translators of the Bible

https://twitter.com/ad_falla/status/1370289648912625668?s=19

I feel this makes perfect sense considering that Christianity and Islam are both Middle Eastern religions with many of the same concepts. Also, it's not a "liberal" thing. It was the norm til fascists got upset, just like you did with LGBT

"It's sacrilegious to say that Allah is 3-in-1 or that he had a son"

For Christians it's sacrilegious to say that Jesus wasn't the son of God. Same if you tell a Hindu that the dewa are leading people off the true path. Just accept that not everyone shares the same religion

Interestingly, the Batek have an Islamic-influenced creation legend that the deities Allah and Ta'ala were brothers who created humans, and an even higher god called Tohan gave people life. Is that sacrilege too? Oh but you don't like animism either

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1182571982358843393?s=19

"But Islam is the offical religion so only the Islamic definition of Allah should be allowed here"

We're a secular country with Islam as the state religion. Technically a hybrid but never a theocracy. Freedom of religion is part of the constitution. Don't get into this debate

"So it really is a conspiracy to confuse and convert Muslims!"

If you're stupid enough to believe that sort of conspiracy theory then nothing I say will convince you. But here's a few things to ponder. Did orang asli who adopted the word Allah try to convert people to animism?

If Christians were only using the word Allah to convert Muslims, why the earlier point about "selective" translations? Wouldn't they have used as many Arabic terms as possible?

And why is it that the targets of the conspiracy, the peninsular Chinese, don't commonly use Allah? Their services are mostly in English and Chinese. Are the priests and pastors in Borneo all in on this worldwide conspiracy?

As it is, non-Muslims can't preach to Muslims, and it's impossible to renounce Islam anyway. Nobody has ever once heard of a Malay Muslim getting "confused" in this way. It's a hypothetical scenario created to sell a narrative that only the gullible fall for

"But only Christians use Allah because of their global evangelical movement"

As stated, orang asal use it too. The word Allah even appears in Sikh scriptures. What you thought was unique turned out not to be as exclusive as you believed

sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Allah

"Even so, they should just respect the sensitivities of the Muslim majority"

This is never a good argument. Ever. What you're asking for isn't respect, it's subservience

Forcing minorities to alter their religious practice because you're worried about a baseless conspiracy theory is NOT respect. Instead, learn not to be so easily offended by religions and cultures other than your own

What about the word Allah in the Johor anthem? Can non-Muslims not say it? Do they just skip that word? If you think that's reasonable, there's something wrong with you

What precedent are we setting if a government is allowed to alter the scripture of a major world to suit their particular interpretation, in spite of the religion's followers? Are our politicians Christian scholars now?

"Ask what Islamic scholars say"

First of all, the vast majority of Islamic scholars worldwide have no issue with non-Muslims using the word Allah. Look beyond Malaysia. Even here, Dr Asri Zainul Abidin says that the ban is syirik

malaymail.com/malaysia/artic…

Second, why ask Islamic scholars specifically? This is an issue that involves Christianity so shouldn't you get the opinion of Malay-speaking or Arabic-speaking Christians?

And third, this type of appeal to authority is lazy considering that the Quran is very clear that Christians pray to the same God, being Allah. It only disagrees on the status of Jesus

"What's their agenda in wanting to use the word"

This is a loaded question borne of ignorance and paranoia. It begins with the assumption that there's some hidden motive. Could it be that Malay-speaking Christians just want to practice their faith in the way they always have?

Think of it this way. The word Allah predates Islam, so do Christian-majority countries have the right to ban Muslims from using it? Would they then accuse Muslims of having some secret agenda for protesting? Because that's how ridiculous your conspiracy theories sound