My God Is More Popular Than Your God

Oh, Tautology!

Enter the Allah saga.

Here we have the ensuing debate on the banning of "Allah" in non-Muslim/non-Islamic contexts. If I remember correctly, (my assignment brain is telling me to give a citation, damn university.) the reason given was "it would cause confusion amongst Muslims/Malays."

When that quote popped up on my screen the first thing I could do was reel in laughter and consider the supposed Muslim intelligentsia that exist somewhere in the parallels of our universe, whether they really are just a myth, and whether Muslims are as docile as we make ourselves out to be. Amazing, I tell you.

Initially, I was not inclined to make such a big fuss about the issue, particularly because it sounded like two things:

a) The ineptitude of the religious department in this country, along with their curtness,

b) "Malaysians concerned about their freedom of religion" screaming "ISLAMOFASCISM!!!"

Maybe the second point is not completely justified on the basis that I've never been in their position. The curse of being the majority.

At any rate, I was of the opinion that the religious department shouldn't have gotten their underpants in a garble.


Anyways, the issue popped up again as I read of the newspaper looking to file a law suit against the banning.

So here we are again. To break it down empirically, it should be divided into two parts:

a) reason for the ban (as mentioned earlier)

b) reason for its use by non-Muslims.

The basis of the argument against the banning is to use "Allah" in place of "God" in the Malay section of the newspaper, or in articles written in Malay. Firstly,

God = English

Allah = God in Arabic

Tuhan = God in Bahasa Melayu, national language of the most kecoh people in the world

So here's the question. Why on Earth would a Malay article use a foreign word for God in place of its own specific, Tuhan? What is so wrong and deficient with our own language that we have to utilise another? AND JUST ONE WORD?

Muslims in Malaysia refer to God as Allah for a very simple reason. As Arabic is the medium of translation from God to Man in Islam, so do Muslims use Arabic terms when speaking of/contemplating/worshiping God. Furthermore, "Allah" is used to refer to God by all Arabic speaking people whether they be Jews, Christians or Muslims. And even further from furthermore, in the Qur'an Allah calls himself Allah. So, tada! The link is one of cultural demographics, where Malays here identify themselves as Muslims, and therefore call God "Allah".

Its the equivalent of using Latin when conducting Church services, or calling God "Jesus".

Why would the paper want to use a term so closely associated with Islam anyways? Is it to blur the lines between the religions, or to actually confuse us sillies?

People say, "We're all worshiping the same God anyhow, so it doesn't matter." Heeeeeeeeell No! There exists only one God, or one "version " of God, but we're all contemplating Him and worshiping Him differently. That's pretty damn evident, therefore to use different religious terms interchangeably would be a technical blasphemy. By calling God "Allah" one is referring to the Islamic version, as the name denotes Islam and everything possible to do with it. Similarly if I were to refer to God as Yahweh I would be referring to the Jewish version of God.

If you don't believe me, see Allah and Yahweh. As Wikipedia is a search engine, it immediately uses the relevant word's direct denotation.

That being said, Allah is merely God in Arabic. Release the religious connotations and its just another word. While the necessity of its usage outside Muslim circles is queer and superfluous, its banning is equally unjustified. Language is a social construct, fluid as the peoples it belongs to. What we say is important, but hardly as important as why we say it. Its something we can neither enforce nor deny, simply because our minds and motives remain hidden under subtle nuances.

So what do I propose? Case be thrown out. Ban revoked. The newspaper to take up Bahasa Melayu lessons.

So can we stop the politicking already? Its getting tiring.