Churches in East Malaysia are disturbed by the ongoing ‘Allah' controversy, which is clearly escalating.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's earlier statement that the government cannot stop people from gathering at mosques tomorrow to protest has apparently aggravated the issue.

Some churches are avoiding comment in order not to add fuel to the fire but many are also disappointed that most East Malaysian ministers have failed to voice their support in this matter.

Banning the use of the word ‘Allah' by non-Muslims would be akin to putting the spanner in works, according to them.

holy churches 291106 02 "The matter does not just affect the Catholic Church, because all churches which use the national language in East Malaysia use the word ‘Allah'," said Father Richard Sim of the Sarawak Baptist Church in Kuching.

He said no religion should have monopoly of the word, and that all Christians should be concerned as "it impeaches on their right to use the word".

Although Sim does not use the word in his English and Chinese sermons in Kuching, he said he uses it when working in the rural areas because villagers, who speak mostly Bahasa Malaysia, are more comfortable with the word ‘Allah'.

Sim said that this is not a new issue and the largest church in East Malaysia, Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) has been using the word in their activities for ages.

When contacted, SIB declined to comment so as not inflame the issue. The Sarawak Anglican Church also refused comment.

Another Sarawakian church official who declined to be named for fear of repercussions, said that a ban on the use of the word ‘Allah' by non-Muslims would be "unfair" to the Ibans and Dayaks in his congregation.

The official, who is from another sect of the Christian faith, said the issue has heavily affected its Iban members who have had to do without bibles for more than a year.

"The Iban Bibles were confiscated so now they have to use the Indonesian Bible. Imagine you are an English speaker and someone is speaking to you in Chinese. It's very unnatural," he said.

No respect for fellow humans

According to the official, the issue is "upsetting" the Christian community in East Malaysia because it is "unreasonable" and "shows that (the government) has no respect for fellow humans".

He also said that the issue highlights the divide between East and West Malaysia as East Malaysia Muslims have never made an issue about this.

A pastor in Sabah, however, said that they are not feeling the heat as much, despite the fact it will affect their activities.

"All churches in Sabah, or at least the ones in Kota Kinabalu that I know of use ‘Allah' in their sermons and in the Bible, and we have not had problems. Everything is moving along as per normal here," said Pastor James Gamad of Persatuan Penganut Kristian Baptis Kionson Inanam in Kota Kinabalu.

When asked if he is against the ban, Gamad said: "It would not cause much chaos as after all, we all believe in the same God."

He, however, disagreed with it as it would be troublesome for the church, which mostly uses Bahasa Malaysia, to have to change all Bibles, sermons and hymns.

‘Muslims are not stupid'

Gamad also said that there are words other than ‘Allah' that can used to refer to God should the ban be imposed, and that it was actually preferable to use the word ‘Bapa' as it is more familiar.

His counterparts in Sarawak, however, disagreed, saying that the word ‘Allah' is different from ‘Tuhan' as they carry different meanings in different contexts.

"The word ‘Allah' is not interchangeable with ‘Tuhan' because the word ‘Tuhan' is a translation for ‘Lord' while ‘Allah' is a translation for ‘God'."

In any case, when the Ibans say ‘Allah' they mean the Supreme God, not the god of the Muslims," said the church official.

He added that there is little room for confusion because Muslims "are not stupid and can draw the line between our beliefs and their beliefs."

"Malays in the 1970s attended mission schools and studied the Bible but no one got confused," he added.

He also refuted claims from some quarters that Christians only want to use the word ‘Allah' so they can convert Muslims.

"We are not trying to convert Muslims. If we do this, they'll arrest us. Why would we want to put this upon ourselves?" he said.

The official added that his church is very cautious when approached by Muslims who want to learn more about the Christian faith.

"If Muslims approach us, we tell them that we rather tell them to do their own research first because they can always come back and say 'Hey, this church tried to convert me.' We are actually very cautious," he said.

Gamad agreed, adding that the word ‘Allah' is only used by church members during religious ceremonies.

"We do not use the word in public, so I urge society to respect that," he said.