Sarawak churches to hold more ‘Allah’ forums for rural folks
(MM) – More forums on the “Allah” issue will be held to educate those living in Sarawak’s rural areas, the state’s churches have said as a debate on the non-Muslims’ right to use the Arabic word continues unabated.
Rev Datuk Bolly Lapok, the chairman of Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS), confirmed this when asked of the group’s future plans after it organised a forum titled “Standing together for religious freedom” in Kuching on Wednesday morning.
“We shall continue to organise it to [inform] our rural folks,” Lapok replied in a text message to The Malay Mail Online.
Lapok said leaders across the political divide in Sarawak had expressed “deep dismay” over the Court of Appeal’s recent decision, where the appellate court ruled against the Catholic Church’s use of the word “Allah” in the latter’s weekly paper Herald.
The forum was then organised by ACS “to ensure that our outrage was justified and was based on what is lawful and just”, he said, saying that over 1,000 people attended it.
When contacted, ACS secretary Ambrose Linang explained that the forum was meant to “inform and educate members of society that we are all Malaysians, that we want to live together as brothers and sisters”.
“It was non-political,” the church elder said of the forum, which he said was also attended by those from other faiths, including the Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus.
The speakers for the forum were researcher Dr Ng Kam Weng, lawyer Lim Heng Seng, and academic Prof Dr Jayum A. Jawan.
Ng, whose presentation was titled “Theology versus Ideology”, said he had spoken on the historical, theological and linguistics aspects of the Christians’ use of the word “Allah”.
He told The Malay Mail Online that he shared about the Christians’ long-standing tradition of using the word and their continued use based on “grounds of history and grounds of language”.
“Because at the end of the day, our decision is based on theology and linguistics, whereas the people want us to abandon the use, ignoring the theological and linguistics aspect and they are going on ideological aspect,” the Kairos Research Centre’s research director said on Thursday.
Read more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/sarawak-churches-to-hold-more-allah-forums-for-rural-folks
