Kalimah ‘Allah’ issue will escalate and rupture
Helen Ang
A survey of public perception on the kalimah ‘Allah’ controversy was conducted by the Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy & Elections last December (a year ago) among 1,676 respondents in the peninsula.
The pie chart below shows the ethnic breakdown of those who participated in the Umcedel poll.
* Malays – 65 percent
* Chinese – 24 percent
* Indians – 11 percent
Below are the Umcedel results
77 percent of the Malays surveyed do not agree for kalimah ‘Allah’ to be used by non-Muslims.
73 percent of the respondents (all races) living in the rural areas do not agree for kalimah ‘Allah’ to be used by non-Muslims.
It is the younger age cohorts who object more strongly to non-Muslims using kalimah ‘Allah’.
65 percent of those between 21-30 years old (all races) and 59 percent of those between 31-40 years old (all races) object to non-Muslims using kalimah ‘Allah’.
The middle-aged (41-50 and 51-60) are slightly less vehement in their objections, registering 54 and 56 percent naysayers respectively. This is an interesting finding, i.e. the Merdeka babies have got a more relaxed attitude on this matter compared to Gen Y.
