I refer to the letter Exclusivity wrong, so is Herald’s use of Allah . From my observations, I think the writer missed the whole point of my previous letter .

My point is why should Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Christians change their way when they have been using ‘Allah’ to refer to God all this while? Why, only now, does a minister suddenly decide that Muslims will ‘suddenly’ get confused? Why, if what the minister says is true, must BM-speaking Christians change their way?

If one really thinks about it, the issue is not with the BM-speaking Christians at all, but the minister himself for making such false presumptions without empathy. How can a Muslim be confused when the Herald weekly is clearly not allowed by law to be sold in public? And why, if the ‘Allah’ word issue is not an issue anywhere else in the world, is it a major issue here?

In fact, history has proven that ‘Allah’ has been used by Christians first to refer to their God long before the Muslims used it. If it is a coincidence that both Muslims and Christians in the country use the term ‘Allah’ to refer to God, why don’t both parties just seek to understand each other more?

Aren’t we supposed to be tolerant, sensitive and understanding of each other’s cultures and religions instead? Is this not what the Barisan Nasional government been preaching all along? Maybe the Umno-led Barisan Nasional government has lost the art of being tolerant and sensitive to other races and religion, which is the key ingredient that allowed it to remain in power until today.

Come on, Mohd Johari Baharom and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, practice what your party preaches and I will start to respect you for your noble task of ensuring that people of different races and religions do not fight.