I refer to HF and Michelle Lee Su-Lin's letters regarding the use of the word "Allah" in the Iban Bible. If it is true that the ban o­n the Iban Bible is because it had included the word "Allah Taala" to refer to God and this may offend the religious sensitivities of the Malaysian Muslims, then something is indeed wrong with the minds of our political leaders.

No nation, individual or religious group, let alone those in Malaysia, can have the monopoly to say that you are not allowed to use a generic Arabic word "Allah" to refer to the word God in English, in any book, religious or not. That word belongs to the Arabic language and not the Malay language.

"Allah" is not a surname or a copyrighted or patented name for God, as the Divine Being is not supposed to have a name for Himself. Unless our self-professed religious experts amongst the Malaysian political leaders think so, that the word "Allah" is a name of a Muslim God, they should go back and reread the Islamic scriptures.

Here is the Islamic website called Fatwa-Online with an article entitled 'Who is Allah' by an Arab writer, Abu 'Iyaad . This is what he, as an Arab scholar, says:

"Very often o­ne will hear the Arabic word 'Allah' being used in regards to Islam. The word 'Allah' is simply the Arabic word for Almighty God, and is the same word used by Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews.

"If o­ne were to pick up an Arabic translation of the Bible, o­ne would see the word 'Allah' being use where the word 'God' is used in English. Actually, the Arabic word for Almighty God, 'Allah', is quite similar to the word for God in other Semitic languages - for example, the Hebrew word for God is 'Elah'.

"For various reasons, some non-Muslims mistakenly believe that Muslims worship a different God than Jews and Christians. This is certainly not the case, since the pure monotheism of Islam calls all people to the worship of the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and all of the other prophets. However, even though Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God - since there is o­nly o­ne God - their concepts concerning Him differ in some significant ways."

If the ban of the Iban Bible, arising from the use of the word "Allah", is to ensure there is a distinction, in the minds of the Ibans, between the God of the Christians (and Jews) and the God of the Muslims (including those in Malaysia), then our Malaysian politicians themselves have done a great disservice and given a bad name to the great religion of Islam.

The unity of the three faiths is in the belief of the same God of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus - albeit different in their approaches - so well put by the writer of the article quoted above. Is it blasphemous, in Islam, for the Ibans or anybody else, to recognise or realise that the God they appeal to is the same o­ne as in Christianity, Judaism and Islam?

The fear of the word "Allah" appearing in the Iban Bible, and the fear of Christians evangelising among Muslims are two different and separate issues to be addressed.

The banning of the Iban Bible is like going back to the Middle Ages. After aspiring to be part of the information technology age, Malaysia's ban of a holy book for an ethnic minority in the country is a very poor reflection of our leaders' credibility, and sense of fair play towards the religious sensitivities of their minority citizens, coming at the dawn of the 21st century.