Hishammuddin says regrets ‘Allah’ ban
By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, The Malaysian Insider
“Church leaders understood fully that there are different levels of maturity and understanding in our constituents. The issue required wisdom and a decision but it is not as easy as you think.
“When you become a minister then you would find that it is difficult in finding a balance between the majority and minority,” he said.
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 — Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today that his predecessor should not have banned the word “Allah” from being used by the Catholic Church.
The decision, he added, will continue to haunt his ministry “for a very long time.”
“In this ministry, it is a zero-sum game. We are [now] in an uncharted landscape which will haunt us for a very long time.
“We should have let the sleeping dogs lie. It was triggered by those that believed that the word ‘Allah’ should not be used in Sabah and Sarawak,” he said during the Fourth Annual Malaysian Student Leaders Summit here.
Former home minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar had imposed the word ban on the Church’s newspaper, The Herald, two years ago.
Syed Hamid had temporary allowed the conditional use of the word “Allah”, only to rescind the government gazette later.
He had then cited fears that the use of word outside an Islamic context would cause confusion to Muslims.
Today, Hishammudin stressed that the Church appreciated the circumstances surrounding the ban.
“Church leaders understood fully that there are different levels of maturity and understanding in our constituents. The issue required wisdom and a decision but it is not as easy as you think.
“When you become a minister then you would find that it is difficult in finding a balance between the majority and minority,” he said.
