‘Allah’ is made up of two words in Arabic, ‘al-ilah’, ‘The God’ in English, thus emphasising the mono-theistic nature of God, ‘The One God’. I have no doubt that Allah weeps over Malaysia as some of his professed followers, (some) Muslims, burn buildings of his other professed followers, non-Muslims, for the simple reason that the non-Muslims also call him ‘Allah’. I wholeheartedly concur with The Malaysian Insider article, an excerpt here,

JAN 12 — The Roman Catholic Church is now being asked to drop its claim to use “Allah” and to resort to dialogue to prevent further religious tension and strife.

This, after eight churches and a convent school becoming targets of arson, stone and paint attacks over four days.

This, after the government successfully applied for a stay of the Dec 31, 2009 High Court ruling that the Catholic weekly Herald may use the word to describe the Christian God in its Bahasa Malaysia section.   .  .  .

Perhaps the government should realise it cannot legislate faith. It might have done so under Article 160 of the Federal Constitution to define Malays, but limiting names for God is unknown in the world.

It is disingenuous to blame the Catholics for starting this row, and asking for a dialogue now or to tell the people it’s a trick to convert Muslims to Christianity, to threaten their faith, to challenge the position of Malays and the Malay Rulers.

The Catholics cannot be blamed for all of the above. Nor the Christians. That would be the easy way out, to blame victims for the crime committed by its perpetrators.

The blame should be on the person who made them lose their constitutional rights; no more, no less.

What anyone wants to call their God is their right. No more, no less.   (my bold for emphasis)

I could not agree more.

Related article from The Malaysian Insider, 13 January, Police have lead on Church arsonists

My previous posts, Cns retain use of ‘Allah’ in Bible   and   ‘Allah’ banned for Christians.