bobjots : redux

In view of the current controversy on the use of Allah by non-Muslims in Malaysia, one of the inevitable non-constitutional questions raised both by supporters and detractors is whether the God of Islam and the God of Christianity are mutually exclusive. Here’s an academic-theological perspective from S. Wesley Ariarajah, a professor of ecumenical theology at Drew [...]

The case of The Herald v Malaysia, which was aimed at getting a court order to overturn the ban on the use of Allah by the The Herald newspaper, has generated a lot of controversy. A lot of allegations and accusations have been made, especially by the mainstream media, which acts to blur the facts of [...]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I fear that the arbitrary ban on the use of certain words in the national language by the non-Muslim communities in this country will not stop with Allah. The press has recently caught on: ‘Allah’ not only word banned Malaysian Insider, January 14, 2010   彭州憲法規定非回教刊物‧禁用25字眼及10用語 (Pahang laws ban use of 25 words [...]

In the light of the church burnings over the last 12 hours, I am reminded of the simple prayer we say every Sunday before the Benediction: Forgive us our tresspasses .. As we forgive those who tresspass against us If you are in the Klang Valley, you are invited to join us tonight for a time of quiet [...]

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 [...]

Update I have just been informed that Archbishop Murphy Pakiam will be declining the invitation to participate in the dialogue as he does not want to make a public statement about this at the moment. He will be replaced by Eddin Khoo, a social activist and scholar on religion. Personally I am extremely disappointed at this [...]

Once again the collective conscience of Malaysians are (or at least should be) hit by the revelation of another human being being subject to physical abuse by virtue of that person being a migrant worker. The tragedy is that this time, the abused person ended up losing her life. I am referring to the recent tragic [...]

Some of you have mentioned that you have not been able to add your Malaysian bank account information to your PayPal account. I gave a call to PayPal’s customer service people in Singapore and followed up with an e-mail enquiring about this. I have been informed that PayPal had yet to complete their systems update that [...]

I am not sure how I missed this but apparently PayPal is now fully functional in Malaysia. This means Malaysian account holders are now able to not just withdraw their PayPal funds into credit and debit cards but also to their Malaysian bank accounts. PayPal is now also able to support transactions in Malaysian Ringgit [...]

When I was a wee lad (ok .. maybe not that wee ..), I was a member of a uniformed youth organisation, The Boys’ Brigade (BB). I had the privilege of serving with two different Companies (as local units are called) in very different settings. The first Company (Coy.) I joined was the 1st Teluk [...]

The current flag of Malaysia was first raised in September 16, 1963 to replace the previous flag of the Federation of Malaya which was almost identical to the current flag except for the number of stripes (11 from the current 14) and points in the Federation Star (11 from the current 14). This variation was [...]

As many of you are aware, a non-partisan group of Malaysians initiated a very welcomed solidarity initiative on September 16, 2009. They invited fellow Malaysians to join in a day of fasting in conjunction with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan as well as the 46th anniversary of the founding of our nation, Malaysia. The stated [...]

More than half a century ago, our fathers and their fathers came together to forge a new nation out of a hodge-podge collection of semi-feudal states and Crown Colonies bearing new hopes and dreams for a future founded upon the principles of liberty and justice, ever seeking the welfare and happiness of the people and [...]