bobjots : redux

Contrary to popular belief, the ban on the use of Allah as a translation for God by non-Muslims is not governed by the various Syariah enactments that exist in Malaysia but within the authority granted the various security related legislations to the Home Ministry to enact regulations to safeguard national security – whatever national security actually means.

Since Syariah laws in Malaysia are only applicable to Muslims, there is no straightforward way to enforce a Syariah empowered prohibition on non-Muslims. The only way to do so is to appeal to a civil or common law provision to make the ban apply to all Malaysians – Muslim or non-Muslim alike. And that was exactly what happened.

The original High Court decision to reverse the ban was because the Court decided that the Home Ministry had no basis to consider that the use of Allah to translate God by non-Muslims would be a security threat to the nation. Unfortunately, since the ban was reversed, a lot of incidents and threats have gone around, primarily targeted at the Roman Catholic Church since they were the plaintiff, to make the security threat credible.

Now having got that off my chest, what are some of my own worries about allowing this ban to stand?  A lot has been said about the historical precedents in the use of Allah by non-Muslims (particularly Christians) in the Nusantara as the term for God and how this ban is an arbitrary move against established historical and cultural practices.

Here’s another angle that has probably been missed out by some commentators. The term Allah is not the only term claimed to be exclusively Muslim and banned by the various Syariah enactments. I wonder if the Home Ministry is able to get away with this ban, what would happen if they decide to utilise the same powers to ban the other terms. Some of the terms banned are integral to the Alkitab as we know it today and describes some very fundamental Christian concepts as well.

Here’s a list of what the various Syariah enactments prohibit for non-Muslim use. Terms used by the Christian community are highlighted in bold maroon.

Do you really expect me to believe that this will stop at Allah alone? Not that long ago, even the word Al-Kitab was banned, despite it being used as the name of the Malay translation of the Bible for centuries.

And if the list above is taken literally, this will mean the re-naming of some of the books of the Bible like all the 4 Injils, Kisah Para Rasul, and Wahyu. The Sidang Injil Borneo which predates the formation of Malaysia will also need to change its name.

In fact, if you notice the various Malay language subtitles of English language films that utilise Christian terms, there seems to be a deliberate denial of the existence of equivalent terms in Malay and words like the Bible, Jesus and Christ are rendered as Bible, Jesus, and Christ rather than Al-Kitab, Yesus and Kristus respectively.

Hmm .. see .. we are pretty capable of our own conspiracy theories as well.

Personally I am not confident in using the judicial arena to regain what essentially are denied rights and ownership to the national language. So I reckon that as far as I am concerned, I will still continue to use the proscribed terms in my ibadat and kebaktian as and when I find it necessary to do so, regardless of the circumstances.

Lalu mereka memanggil kedua-dua orang rasul itu masuk kembali, dan melarang mereka menyebut nama Yesus atau mengajar dengan nama-Nya. Tetapi Petrus dan Yohanes menjawab, “Pertimbangkan sendiri mana yang benar di sisi Allah: Taat kepada tuan-tuan atau taat kepada Allah?

- Kisah Para Rasul 4:18-19

For the benefit of those who don’t read Malay (of which I can very little excuses for if you are Malaysian):

Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges!

- Acts of the Apostles 4:18-19