I really didn’t want to write about the current situation in Malaysia because I know it will end up nowhere. Any argument, any debate, any discussion will only be tainted with cussing, abusing and non-intellectual words.
And man, this blog is starting to make me look like some pious dude or something
I know my own brethren, I share the same blood with them, I lived with them for my entire life and I know that most of them will not be able to have a proper discussion with me. It might sound biased but just look at this, go through every post and you’ll find that they will immediately abuse anyone who tries to present an argument with labels and such.
Why do they do it? To be firm they say, we can’t be soft all the time they say, we can’t do it cautiously all the time they say. I say that’s a bunch of BS, there’s a big difference between being firm and being abusive. Anyway, let’s move on to the main point.
First of all, I think we should analyze why these people are so adamant at refusing to let people use the word “Allah”. It’s always better to look at an issue from both sides of the coins.
1. Their main argument is that people or the next generation will get confused between the true teachings of Islam and the teachings of Christianity.
a. Those less educated will be more vulnerable towards the Christians that might want to deviate these vulnerable Muslims
b. Malaysia will turn out to be like Indonesia, where the teaching there is screwed up according to them.
2. If Christians use Allah in their teaching it will just contradict their own concept of Trinity.
a. I have no idea whether any of these are true but here you go
b. The “group” opposing says Jesus=God, Holy Spirit= God so since Allah basically means one/singular God, it doesn’t fit in the equation.
3. There’s a fatwa forbidding the use of word Allah in any religious publication that is not of Islamic origins.
4. It is an insult to Islam.
5. Allah is an Arabic word and not a Malay word, therefore why use Allah instead of “Tuhan”, the Malay word for God?
I will not use any Googled facts or suddenly read the Quran and look out for evidence to support my points. For this matter, it doesn’t work that way, because to use them one must have a firm grasp of the facts. Instead I will use what one would call common sense and see how far it goes.
1. Confusion? To a certain degree, I will have to agree that allowing the usage of the word “Allah” in a religious publication will indeed confuse a certain group of people. That said, it is the Muslim community’s duty to make sure that such confusions do not arise from mere reading of an article.
a. It is easier for one to be confused by their own kin rather than to be influenced by strangers. Take a religious cult like Ayah Pin for example, was he a Christian? No, he twisted the facts about Islam and made it for his own good and look at the followers he made, they aren’t “uninformed” people, they are engineers and businessmen, the class of people one would think least vulnerable.
b. The impact of non-Muslims trying to uhh, sway an average Muslim’s faith wouldn’t be that much, because humans have a natural instinct to be suspicious around things they don’t know. It’s like when an average Muslim or any religious person learning about evolution, they’ll shun it the moment they see it.
c. Even if by some small chance the Christians will use the word “Allah” to shake the beliefs of Muslims, eventually people will find out that something’s wrong and help fix the problem. This is the power of a community.
2. There is this belief that the most vulnerable groups, i.e., the less knowledgeable in any Islamic teaching will be mixing up the teachings of Christian and Islam. They say that even an Imam’s son can turn into the devil himself (as in being the opposite of his dad) one can only imagine what more the advent of the current situation will do.
a. And it’s the Christians’ fault for this to happen. Yeah, right, blame the environment and not his parents.
b. Most of the people worry that their children or their future children will not turn out to be Muslims and even question the integrity of Islam.
c. This is where we see the Muslim community in Malaysia as a whole fail in being Muslims. They would not take up the challenge to prove that Islam is right, instead they fear the questions, they shun the questions and it is blasphemy to even think of the questions.
d. They’re so proud of their own religion yet they barely know anything about it. There’s just so much around them to be observed and studied to prove that their belief is right but no, they choose to sit back and watch mindless Cinetron series.
e. It is a duty as a Muslim, as said many times in the Quran, to observe Allah’s creations (that’s basically everything around them) to see how great Allah is and all.
f. Therefore it is a responsibility to be knowledgeable enough to teach your children and take on any answers they might have. If you aren’t able to convince your children then it is your fault, and not some ruling by the court that is at fault.
g. Personally, I think those that didn’t receive any religious teaching wouldn’t care whether the Christians use the word “Allah” or not in their Bible.
h. Given the compulsory Islamic Education subject that all Muslim students will take in school, they would know to at least that whatever they read is not parallel to the general knowledge of Islam and thus able to differentiate which is a Christian publication and which is an Islam publication
3. Some pointed out the whole Muslim community in Indonesia as an example of the implications, as shown here
a. One significant trend that I found in the author’s writing is that at the end of every occasion, he knew that what he encountered was a Christian publication/event/thing.
b. Did he become confused? Was his belief shaken? None of that happened and he even went out of his way to make sure that what he saw is a legit Islam event or whatever it was.
c. Those who pointed this out also say that the teachings of Islam in Indonesia is screwed up, well look at who’s talking. Who’s the one who has been watching all their “Islamic” Cinetrons on tv? Who’s the one who say that the Cinetrons give good lessons? See? Exactly my point.
d. Plus, even if they are claimed to be screwed up, at least they had the sense to make smoking haram unlike us who are said to be still true to the teachings.
I’ll continue more on this, but for now here you go.
(to be continued…)
