When religion seeks to rule by power or politicians use religion to rule we are all in for strife. The banning of the use of the word ‘Allah’ in the Bible is a good example of precisely what the Parliament of the World’s Religions seeks to avoid. Excert from the ‘Malaysian Insider’ re the ban on ‘Allah’ being used in the Bible in Malaysia, quoting Senior federal counsel from the Malaysian Attorney General’s Chambers, Kamaludin:

“The anti-propagation law was meant to “avoid creating confusion and misunderstanding” among the majority Muslim Malaysians who have grown up knowing the term “Allah” to be exclusive to their community.

Kamaludin dismissed the church’s stress on the historical significance of Christians in the country and region using the word “Allah” long before Muslims did as “not relevant” and added that there was no proof today the word was still being used in its original context among Malaysian Christians.

But he may have gone too far when he tried to counter the widespread use of Arab Christians who also use the word “Allah” to refer to their God.

Kamaludin claimed that Arab Christians believed that God was one, unlike Malaysian Christians who subscribe to the “trinity” concept of “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost”.

You have to ask if the Malaysian Government’s claim that Arab Christians and Malaysian Christians have different understandings of the Christian doctrine of God is blind ignorance or bad information or a knowing untruth used in the pursuit of religious and political imposition of power.

See the full report by Debra Chong. Comments are also interesting. The court is due to hand down its decision on 30 December 2009. Please pray for religious freedom in Malaysia.

See also my posts  Swiss minaret ban is bad  and  Burqas and religious freedom.