No curb on Sarawak Christians’ use of ‘Allah’ as long as I am CM, says Adenan
The Malaysian Insider – 14 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
- No curb on Sarawak Christians’ use of ‘Allah’ as long as I am CM, says Adenan
The Sarawak government has assured its large Christian population that it will not follow the states in the peninsula by trying to curb them from using the word Allah to refer to God.
Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem (pic), who marked his one month in office yesterday, said moreover, there is no law in Sarawak that restricts their use of the word Allah in their prayers and in their literature.
Speaking to Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church parishioners at a meeting in Mukah yesterday, he also gave assurance that the state would not legislate any laws that would curb their use of the word “as long as I am the Chief Minister”.
Pakatan-ruled Selangor sparked a heated debate when its religious authorities (Jais) raided the Bible Society of Malaysia premises in January and seized hundreds of Malay language Bibles containing the word Allah.
The Bibles were meant for Christians in Sabah and Sarawak.
Two-thirds of Christians in Malaysia are Bumiputera and are largely based in Sabah and Sarawak, where they routinely use Bahasa Malaysia and indigenous languages in their religious practices, including describing God as “Allah” in their prayers and holy book.
There are also quite a sizeable number of Christians in states like Selangor and Johor who have moved there to live and work.
“Allah” or “Tuhan” are the same as they all refer to God, said Adenan, who took up Bible study when he was a student at the Catholic mission run St Joseph's school in Kuching.
“God created us differently, but at the same time we are the same because we believe in the colourful garden. It would be very dull if all the colours were white,” Adenan was quoted as saying by the Borneo Post.
The Melanau is an ethnic Bumiputera group whose culture and traditional practices are close to the Malays but with a large percentage of Christians.
It is not uncommon for Melanau families, whose parents are Christians and who have their children who had converted via marriage, to live under one roof. – March 29, 2014.
