KUCHING - There is no law in Sarawak that prevents Christians here from using the term ‘Allah’ to refer to God, Chief Minister Adenan Satem said.
“I will not permit such a law in Sarawak as long as I am the chief minister,” he said during a meeting with the people at the Catholic Centre three months ago.
The report has since gone viral in social media following the Federal Court’s decision on the use of the world Allah in the Catholic weekly, Herald.
Adenan said he believed everyone was a child of God regardless of race and religion.
He regarded “Allah” or “Tuhan” as the same God and there was no difference among his people.
“God created us differently, but at the same time we are the same because we believe in the colourful garden. It will be very dull if all the colours were all white.”
Thus, he called on the people to respect one another’s religion, beliefs and differences.
Adenan said there were Melanau families here where the parents were Christians while their children Muslims, but they lived under one roof.
“I don’t want that to change. I don’t want them to quarrel among themselves,” he said.
He added that as chief minister he had to make sure everyone could practise their own religion in their own way without hindrance.
“Whether it is mosques, churches, or temples, I will give some grant. I will never distinguish between them.”
He told Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church Mukah parishioners that he could give 10% of the things they asked for.
“I cannot give all that you ask for, but have no doubt that I will never distinguish between mosques, or churches, or temples.
“That is the way it ought to be. You are at liberty to practise your religion in your own way,” he said, adding that such religious freedom is enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
Adenan said Sarawakians had been living in peace for hundreds of years without quarrelling over religious issues, and for that people in the peninsula had a lot to learn from Sarawakians.
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