Pakatan to hold rush meet over ‘Allah’ issue, Anwar says
Ida Lim, The Malaysian Insider
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders will conduct an urgent meeting to discuss the controversial “Allah” issue that has resurfaced, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.
Anwar said this when asked to comment on DAP and PAS taking different stands on whether the Arabic word “Allah” should be used by Christians to describe their god in the Alkitab, the Malay-language translation of the Bible.
“Now that this matter has resurfaced, I think it will require an urgent meeting of Pakatan leadership,” Anwar told reporters after a court hearing here.
Earlier on, the PKR de facto leader said that the matter had previously been settled in a meeting with leaders from all three PR parties ― DAP, PAS and PKR ― present.
“From my understanding, this issue was resolved. Not only was there a meeting, but there was a detailed elaborate discussion on the subject…” he said, saying that classical and religious texts were referred to in the meeting.
In a renewed debate over the use of the word “Allah”, PAS yesterday said that Christians should not use it in the Alkitab, claiming that it does not reflect the actual meaning of “God” in the original text.
PAS also said that using the word “Allah” in the Alkitab will confuse both Christians and Muslims.
But DAP insisted yesterday that Christians in Sabah and Sarawak, who use the Malay language to converse, should be allowed to use the word “Allah” in their Alkitab.
