Allah, SHA’s most coveted trophy?

Surely most Catholics and Christians alike would have read about the recent controversy about the usage of the word Allah. Though it has been going on sometime, I wish to just share my late two cents worth here.

As far as memory serves me, during the Mahathir regime the usage of Allah was never in question. Even going back to Tunku’s time, it wasn’t in question! How come during that time, West Malaysian Catholics were using the word freely and without any restrictions? Presently, the higher authorities in the Catholic Church hierarchy have to undergo court sessions and close scrutiny by the Home Ministry. It seems that Catholics are infringing on the exclusivity given to the Muslims. Words like Allah, Kaabah and Solat are exclusive to Muslims and no other races. Fact first, Catholics and other races have no other use for the other two words (Kaabah & Solat)

Did they check the corpus of Catholicism? We don’t use those words because there is no reference to the Bible. It is only referenced in the Quran and specifically explains the Muslims terminologies. If any other races were to use those words, it would be for explanatory purposes.

The Home Ministry is seen as fickle-minded because of the head. Syed Hamid Albar decided that Allah would remain exclusive for Muslims and no one else. SHA was also connected with the freezing and confiscation of Bibles by the Customs which happened a few years back. SHA changes his mind like weed or lalang. I will follow you.

SHA now has allowed the weekly Catholic Publication The Herald to use Allah in their publication. More importantly, he made sure that under the masthead of this paper there had to be “Untuk Agama Kristian sahaja”. Hello, isn’t there something called freedom of speech and press? Oh wait, those Acts are just for show. There isn’t any real freedom in this country. Plus, if we were given a free rein like America, we would be poking at all the dumbness that our Ministers do. Not forgetting to mention, David Letterman might even make a guest appearance. Damn. Of course we wouldn’t want to make our Ministers look like idiots on National TV (sadly, it has occurred countless times), but imagine the catastrophic result if they were on International airtime? How silly of me, SHA has already been on Al-Jazeera. Best part is, SHA talked like an idiot and basically, we, my fellow Malaysians, have received the brunt of being labelled a country where we still supposedly live on trees and our skyscrapers are made of wood. How humiliating is that? People from overseas think we’re living the Stone Age era? How degrading is that? Plus, we have SHA to endorse that particular fact. We also live in the Stone Age with YSL, Gucci, Jimmy Choo, Burberry, G2000, Channel, Bvlgari and LV accessories. Hmm..

Moving along, imagine Indonesia, a country where there are constant feuds between Christians and Muslims alike. Churches and Mosques are being burnt because of extremists surging ahead with their ideology. But still, they are able to convert out of their religion without much restriction.

We’re under the rule of extremists in our country too. Muslim extremists are the ones coercing their fellow Muslim brethren into the religion. How can we expect Islam to flourish when extremists are inoculating their own propaganda under the cover of religion? All religions teach us good, positive and moral values. The wisdom pearl every religion has bestowed is that to not hate or condemn other religions. Here, we’re not burning houses of worship. There are worse. Muslims are not allowing fellow Muslims to leave Islam as it will be classified as murtad, the biggest sin a Muslim can commit. It’s like they are afraid Islam will no longer be number one with the most followers. Well, when you coerce your fellow Muslim brethren into Islam, you reap what you sow.

“Religion choice is a free and unrestricted opinion entitled to individuals.”
“Anonymous”

But this is really showing us what they are capable of. They are capable of not thinking. Come to think about it, they really did not do any deep thinking into any actions or programs implemented. Like the rear seatbelt implementation, they were active for the first few days and then they just withered of. There are plenty of examples, let’s just give them a break from all the shooting here right?

Anyways, SHA has corrected his mistake on the use of Allah. Or has he actually corrected and learnt his mistake? More importantly, he has permitted it. But there is one thing still bothering me, how are our top ministers going to break out of the kelompok Melayu school of thought?

If they can’t do that, I doubt that other religions would be safe.

Imagine Karma Sutra being banned. That would be a real heart-breaker.