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.

KL Freeze in Unison, Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 13th April 2008.

KL Freeze in Unison, Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 13th April 2008.
Originally uploaded by prakashdaniel

Yes! I was there, with my siblings and Abhay, at KL Freeze in Unison in Pavilion. Detailed report to come, probably tomorrow once the assignment load has eased. But for now...


UPDATE:

So yes i've finally handed in all my assignments.
For now.
Not including second assignments. But hey, passing up is passing up.

Anyways, on to the newsworthy story (damn journalism.), KL Freeze in Unison, which happened on the 13th of April 2008.

What can I say? It had all the tension of a demonstration, a firestorm of a rally and the youthful exuberance of an Incubus gig. I've been for some cool shit over the last couple of years, including all the aforementioned, but this was by far the most wicked, in a twisted kinda way.

We arrived at the meeting point, LOT 10 in Bukit Bintang with time to spare. It was rather odd, as the entire mall was filled with vagrant "We're ALL gonna rob your store, and yours, and yours, and look flashy while doing it" people to the point where staff members were getting edgy. Not toooo inconspicuous, I'd say, but nevertheless!

At about 2:30pm, the drug-pushers or "organisers" started walking around, trying not to be noticed while slipping orange slips of papers into the hands of people who were also trying to look covert, as if the act was completely normal, inclusive of the 900 or so people whom it was being distributed amongst.

The Flash point had been revealed: Pavilion.

When we got there, the bros, Abhay and I started scouting for a good place to freeze while killing til the designated time. We decided to freeze as bodyguards surrounding a VIP, played by my tiny ten year old brother.

All was set, until some started freezing earlier than others.
Fools didn't synchronise their watches. Damn.

So the timing was messed up. No matter, it didn't stop it from being any less cool. Nothing like 900 people freezing as they stood for four minutes in a public place with no one else aware of what's going on, managing to get the event on TV, and pissing of the management! Amazing!

Great to see Jasmine freezing in the middle of a photo. Nice. She directed me to this video.

Jasmine's the frozen girl in blue and white, we're the idiots in suits.

Beat that shit!

Assignments = No Blog Posts, Football is a Cheating Wife

Football is a cold, harsh and cruel game. Just when you think your winning she stabs you in the back, like a significant caught with your best friend's pants.

Back in the heyday of Adams, Pires, Viera, Henry, passivity was uncommon with passion rising higher than an explosive Pompeii in its prime. Anger flared as easily as The Arsenal's football, a win was a woman, a loss was a 90 minute Greek Tragedy.

The paramour nature of The Beautiful Game resulted in a mellow of emotion in the later years, only to be wrecked by a train last night/this morning. Its been ages since i've felt so emotional about a bunch of overpaid men kicking a ball around, but last night's game was a hell raiser.

On a lighter note, amazingly, one more assignment to go and the weights shall be lifted. For the time being, that is.

Damn journalism.

Useless subject.