PETALING JAYA - Malaysians should reject the “extreme positions” taken up by the “minority factions” in the country opposing Christians’ use of the word ‘Allah’, Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMMF) chairman Tan Sri Razali Ismail said today.
Weighing on the Allah row that has stoked inter-faith tensions between the two major religious communities in the country, Razali stressed the controversy did not represent the mainstream of Malaysia.
“We do not have to be embarrassed by the opinion of the people who do this or the agency who does that. They do not illustrate the composite stability of Malaysia,” the former diplomat told a press conference in Universiti Malaya today.
“Other people looking at it from outside may not understand that [the Allah controversy] is a small dimension of what constitutes the Malaysian context.”
While he conceded that the issue must be resolved urgently, he could not foresee any direct, immediate action that could be taken to end the heated debate.
“Some department or groups will not be satisfied (with the action taken) and we have to get used to this kind of psycho drama manifestation of people who want to push their minority opinion through the extreme faction,” said Razali.
“The mainstream people must continue to reject this kind of extreme positions.”
The ‘Allah’ issue has been a bone of contention between Muslims and Christians in Malaysia for decades; many Muslims believe ‘Allah’ is exclusive to their community, while Christians insist that the Arabic word for ‘God’ predates Islam and is used by non-Muslims throughout the world.
The matter was recently reignited when The Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew reportedly told news portal The Malaysian Insider on Dec 27 that churches in Selangor would still use the word ‘Allah’ in their weekend mass.
This sparked protest from several Muslim groups who saw his statement as a direct challenge to the Selangor Sultan’s decree prohibiting non-Muslims in the state from using the word ‘Allah’.
Last Friday, about 400 Muslim protesters burnt an effigy of Lawrence in front of a police station while the Klang Muslim Solidarity Secretariat intended to rally against Lawrence outside the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes during Sunday mass.
Threatened by police action, the 50 protesters eventually gathered at the car park of the nearby Stadium Sultan Sulaiman, while a small group of people of various beliefs gathered outside the church in solidarity with the Christians.
Meanwhile, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) raided the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) office in Damansara Kim last Thursday, arresting two of its leaders and seizing over 300 Bibles in Malay and Iban.
Razali said today that he hoped time would heal the “spiritual irritation” plaguing Malaysia, and urged the public to ignore the shenanigans of the extreme minority.
“Malaysians like to get drawn to this [issue], but the majority of Malaysians are stable and safe,” he said.
By Anisah Shukry
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