By N.H. Chan Malaysian Insider Jan 20 2010
This is what the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said (The Star, Saturday, Jan 16, 2010). Nazri, who was voicing his personal opinion over the “Allah” issue, noted that Sabahans and Sarawakians could still conduct Mass and give sermons in Bahasa Malaysia but should not use the word “Allah” while in the peninsula.
“It is all right to hold Mass in Bahasa Malaysia but do not use the word ‘Allah’. They must use Tuhan as in the national language,” he said in an interview. Although he agreed that the word “Allah” had been long used in Christianity way before Islam existed, Nazri said: “That’s why I say it is all right in Sabah and Sarawak but culturally, you cannot apply it in a place where Allah has always been Islam’s God.”
But where is it said anywhere – certainly it is not in the Koran – that Christians cannot apply Allah in a place where Allah has always been Islam’s God.
The Jews and the Christians have always considered that Islam’s God is the same God of Abraham and of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Jesus Christ was acknowledged by Prophet Mohamed as one of the prophets of God.
Also, one may ask, is there any place on earth where Allah has not been Islam’s God? Even China is a place where Allah has always been Islam’s God.
There are more Muslims in China than Malaysia could ever hope to have even though most of the Chinese people there are not believers of Islam or, for that matter, of any of the main world religions. In fact, Chinese Muslims existed in China centuries before there were any Malay Muslims in Malaya as the peninsula was then called.
Like the majority of the population of China, the Malays of peninsular Malaya then were heathens in the eye of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
All the English dictionaries give the meaning of “Allah” – which is an English word by importation – as “the Muslim name for God”.
But then the Honourable Minister suggested that if you must hold Mass in Bahasa Malaysia do not use the word “Allah”. “They must use Tuhan as in the national language”, said the Minister.
But the synonym for Tuhan is Allah in the Bahasa Malaysia dictionary.
Now, why do Christians prefer to use the word “Allah” when they translate the Bible into Bahasa Malaysia? The reasoning is this: Islam’s name for God is Allah, who is the same God as Abraham’s God. Abraham’s God is also the God of the Hebrew people, namely the Jews. And the God of the Christians is the same God of Abraham, the Muslims and the Jews.
Only the approach or method of worshipping the same God is different depending on whether you are a Muslim, a Christian or a Jew.
So if you use a word like Tuhan it does not apply to the God of the Muslims who is Allah and not Tuhan. But the God of the Muslims is the same God as the God of Abraham. The God of Abraham is the same God of the Jews and of the Christians.
So that the name Allah is more appropriate for the Christians who worship the same God.