I am a Christian. The Bible tells me that God has given Himself the name Yahweh. Yet in Exodus 3:14 when He appeared before Moses in the burning bush, Moses asks and he answers: ‘I am who I am...I am ...has sent me to you.’ Others also refer to the God of Israel as Jehovah.

The present dispute taking place in Malaysia is over the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Christians. Bearing in mind that Islam was brought to the peninsula by Indians, Muslims here do not refer to their God using any of the Indian languages. They still refer to Him as Allah. Using the argument presently used by Christians for using the word ‘Allah’, Tamils could have also used Allah in their literature and worship though they do not.

In Bahasa Malaysia, ‘Tuhan’ is indeed the word to refer to God. If Allah is Arabic as everyone accepts, I cannot see its purpose in the Bahasa Malaysia context. Obviously, the use of ‘Allah’ in Islam by the Malays and Muslims in Malaysia is used not so much as a generic word but as a pronoun. It would be more of the ‘name’ of the Islamic God Muslims here refer to unlike the generic ‘Allah’ that Arab Muslims may have in mind. The Arab Muslims did not seem to have a problem sharing their Allah with the Christians and Jews, as well as with the animists and pagans during pre-Islamic days.

An argument I might settle for is that we are guided by Christian literature from Indonesia. Christian literature in Malaysia has mostly been in English, Chinese and Tamil. The need for Bahasa Malaysia material appeared due to changes in the medium of education in the 1970s. Indonesia is able to supply the Indonesian/Malay bible and other literature, almost all of which refer to God as ‘Allah’.

Hence, it can be argued that the word ‘Allah’ has been adopted to common usage for a long time now. It might be a little too late to isolate it as a pronoun that only refers to the Islamic Allah.

I think it is really no big deal for Christians to drop the use of the word Allah when communicating in Bahasa Malaysia. The ‘Allah’ Malaysian Muslims seem to refer to is not necessarily the same generic ‘Allah’ in Arabic.

However, this distinction is not one that is easily discernible or understood. It is not for the Christians to highlight or educate Malaysian Muslims about this. ‘Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's’ is one principle that can easily be applied to this dispute. My sincere hope is for Herald to drop its use of ‘Allah’. I can only assume mischievous intentions if various arguments are not factored in before continuing with their present stand.