A Malaysian court has ruled that non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah to refer to God, even in their own faiths, see below link.
This is incomprehensible, highly divisive, a colossal waste of judicial focus, priorities and objectives, and short-sighted. It speaks very poorly of Malaysian authorities and clerics and their understanding of and respect for Islam, as well as their vision of Islam and the Muslim people within our world today and into the foreseeable future.
If you want people to respect your religion, you have to respect theirs.
I am a Muslim. No one can tell me otherwise. I have my own beliefs, ethics and principles. However, I do not deny, nor should anyone else, that there are as many Gods as there are religions. If someone dared to tell me that I was not allowed to use the word God... well, I'm not sure what I'd do. For a Muslim, the only God is Allah; but by the same token, for a Christian, there is the trinity of God and so on:
Malaysia, and all nations with a like mentality, are all in desperate need to get the above fact into their narrow-minded, offensive and hateful thinking, for the betterment of the lives of their people and for the sake of a safer and humane world.
Allah is a word that means God, no more, no less. Language is arbitrary and cannot be controlled. Is the Malaysian judiciary trying to rewrite history, like in Orwell's 1984, by controlling the vocabulary used to record it?
Hussein
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انما الامم الاخلاق ما بقيت/ فإن هم ذهبت أخلاقهم ذهبوا
- In Hinduism, there is Shiva, Brahman; there is Rama and Krishna, there is Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara.
- In Judaism, there is HaShem.
- In Christianity, there is the Trinity of God: The Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit.
- In Islam there is Allah.
- In Zoroastrianism, there is Ahura Mazda.
- In Mayan Religion, there is Queztalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent.
- In Aboriginal Religion, there is Biame, the creator from long time ago. There is also Rainbow Serpent, the Creator of the land and the landscape.
- In Ancient Roman Religion, there is Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Jupiter the Great and Good.
- In Ancient Greek Religion, there is Zeus, the Father of the Gods.
- In Celtic Religion, there is Breged, the Mother Goddess.
... and I know there are hundreds, if not thousands, of others of which I am not aware.
Malaysia, and all nations with a like mentality, are all in desperate need to get the above fact into their narrow-minded, offensive and hateful thinking, for the betterment of the lives of their people and for the sake of a safer and humane world.
It is astounding how throughout history, around the globe, regimes, rulers and authorities have fought with rarely matched vigor the concept of freedom of speech. This decision by a Malaysian court is a remarkable example. Ruling that Malaysians who are not Muslim are worshiping Gods that are not really God? Astonishing.
Allah is a word that means God, no more, no less. Language is arbitrary and cannot be controlled. Is the Malaysian judiciary trying to rewrite history, like in Orwell's 1984, by controlling the vocabulary used to record it?
Hussein
A nation needs morals and ethics to survive and thrive. If those factors are gone, the nation is gone.
My blog: http://husseinamin45.
