Sarawak church pleads for right to use ‘Allah’ throughout Malaysia
(The Malaysian Insider) – A major Sarawak church has made an impassioned plea for the right to use the word “Allah” for worship throughout Malaysia, telling Datuk Seri Najib Razak that state Islamic prohibitions have taken away “the most important thing in our lives”.
The Sarawak-based Borneo Evangelical Mission or the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) finally broke its silence over the burning issue, weeks after the Selangor Islamic authorities returned to the state churches some 300 Malay and Iban Bibles containing the word “Allah” seized in January from distributor Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM).
Most of Malaysia’s 13 states disallow the word “Allah” and other Arabic words to be used by other faiths, leading to confiscation of Christian literature and materials, and even a legal suit by the Roman Catholic Church.
“The prohibition not only prohibits the physical act of using the prohibited words. The effect goes deeper by taking away our members’ means of obtaining hope, spiritual strength and sense of purpose. In a sense, the prohibition takes away from us the most important thing in our lives,” SIB president Reverend Dr Justin Wan said in a statement to The Malaysian Insider.
The SIB is affiliated and is a sister church to SIB Sabah and SIB Kuala Lumpur, which have large followings among all Malaysians. The three churches have separate governing bodies.
Wan said there were hundreds of Sarawak and Sabah Christian students attending universities and institutes of higher learning in the peninsula, saying “the majority of whom were educated completely in the Bahasa Malaysia medium, the product of the National Education Policy and with little exposure to English.”
“These students would only be comfortable worshipping in Bahasa Malaysia,” he said, adding that many Sarawak and Sabah Christians educated in Bahasa Malaysia have flocked to and settled in the Klang Valley and other parts of the peninsula for better prospects in life but use “Allah” in their worship, similar to their parents and ancestors.
“And naturally, they will continue to do so in Semenanjung Malaysia. Therefore, even if the prohibition were to apply only to the states in Semenanjung Malaysia and not to Sabah and Sarawak, the high mobility of people between Sabah, Sarawak and the peninsula makes observance difficult, particularly for our members.
“This will have the overall effect of harming national integration and destroying all efforts at realising the country’s 1Malaysia vision,” said Wan.
