THE WORD ALLAH: PART 5 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

1. In addition to the the Federal Territory Islamic Council and Perak Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Councils’ intervention in the court case on the use of the word "Allah" in the Catholic Herald, the Penang and Terengganu Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Councils have now joined the band wagon making the total interveners as 4.

KUALA LUMPUR: Two more state Islamic councils have applied to intervene in a court case on the use of the word "Allah" in a Catholic weekly. The applications by the Penang and Terengganu Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Councils were filed at the High Court yesterday by Messrs Zainul Rijal Talha & Amir. NST 27/6/08

As an Islamic political party, PAS should also seek its intervention in the case. This would then confirm there is indeed no dispute among the UMMAH in Malaysia in respect of this matter. Earlier a Pas assembly man upon he visiting a church upon his rejoice in having won in the election, confirm that word as used by the Arab non-Muslims. (See http://themalaysianinsider.com/mni/the-day-catholics-welcomed-a-man-from-pas-in-shah-alam.htm) I would appeal to the PAS hierarchy to be in unison on this grave matter and make its appropriate stand without further delay.

2. We had last week (15/6/ 08) heard the Sultan of Perak pronouncing that religious Issues should not be tested to a level which will disrupt peace and harmony Islam promotes its believers to respect other religions and not to be enemies with the followers of other religions so long as the sanctity of Islam is not ridiculed and the rights of its Ummah are not violated.

3. In a related development, Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid said in interpreting the Constitution, “one should do so in the spirit in which the document was promulgated and we respect the principles of constitutional interpretation, the universal human values, human rights and obligations and views of judges from other jurisdictions". "But we should not forget our own history and local circumstances," he added.

He said outsiders and even the younger Malaysians only read the cold print with theories and precedents from courts in other countries at the back of their minds. "And they start questioning the fairness of those provisions. They compare the Malaysian Constitution with the constitutions of other countries that do not have provisions which declare equality for all or any 'discretionary' provisions."

"Those specific provisions (the position of Malays Rulers, the Malay privileges, the religion of the Federation, the head of the Islamic religion in the states, the national language, the Malay Regiment, Malay Reserve Land, among others) are the remains left after the bargain."

In this country, the word Allah is so integral to the Muslim faith that’s its use by other faiths in printed form would cause great anxiety, tribulations, despise etc even if such print is imported from neighboring Indonesia. As it is the Agong’s/ Sultan’s absolute jurisdiction on Islamic religious affairs as per our constitution, it would be best that the Roman Catholic Church stops pursuing the judicial review on the word Allah rather than have a head on conflict.