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Don't be sidetracked by the Allah row
Published:  Jul 22, 2013 8:39 AM
Updated: 3:07 AM

YOURSAY 'Can a non-Muslim say that a certain part of the Quran is wrongly printed or misquoted and order the authorities to burn the Quran?'

'Allah' in Bible not misprint, Christians tell minister

your say FellowMalaysian: Reverend Eu Hong Seng, the chairperson of CFM (Christian Federation of Malaysia), the largest Christian organisation in Malaysia, has clarified that the use of 'Allah' in the Alkitab is certainly not an error.

Thus his statement debunked the claim by Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Dahlan Rahman that supported Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali's strong urging to burn the Al-Kitab due to it being a "misprint".

The reverend's statement has made it clear to all that any further call or in support of the burning of Al-Kitab, or any other act against Alkitab that is deemed as a sacrilege, can be regarded as a call to desecrate a holy book hold sacred by all the people of the Christian faith.

As Umno leaders, it is only expected of them to exercise caution, restrain and respect of the many religious faiths of Malaysians, irrespective of whether they are minorities or the majority.

Awakened: Can a non-Muslim say that a certain part of the Quran is wrongly printed or misquoted and order the authorities to burn the Quran?

For a non-Christian to comment that the Bible is wrongly printed is amounting to stepping on the toes of the Christian religious authorities.

The minister, who is not a Christian, is behaving like he knows better than the Christian religious authorities. Worst still, he argued that it was all right to ask the Muslims to burn the "misprinted" Bible.

Ruben: Actually this shows that Muslim politicians can incite hatred, utter seditious words, raise undue racial tensions and yet get away with them, whilst Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee (the Alvivi bloggers) - though their acts are definitely wrong and have apologised - are treated like criminals.

Abasir: Abdul Rahman is proof that Umno is completely emptied of talent. PM Najib Razak has to choose rank idiots like him as ministers because all the smart ones have either joined Pakatan Rakyat or have decided to stay out of politics.

Having seen him in action during a television forum hosted by a foreign journalist before GE13, I am convinced that he is a fool who does not know how foolish he is.

His lack of intelligence however has been compensated by arrogance. The fact that he is nothing but an arrogant fool is evidenced by his statement on the Alkitab.

Sali Tambap: Let us be careful when commenting on the Allah issue. Not all Muslims support the objection to its usage in the Christian Bible. In fact some Muslims are embarrassed by the shallow mindedness of Umno Muslims who advocate this.

This is an evil political issue designed to inflame the Muslims and to oppress the Christians. Good practicing Muslims have vocalised their objection to this. Therefore our comments must be clear and should be aimed directly at these Umno Muslims and not hurt our Muslim brothers who play no part in it.

This will only benefit Umno which is what they want - that is to create strife and mistrust among Malaysians of different ethnic and religious background.

My4Hope: Sali Tambap, your reminder is timely important and apt.

The sad thing is, even when Umno and extremist Muslim NGOs are pitting Islam against other religions, the alternative voice of the Muslim community is far too faint, and this makes non-Muslims' effort, being a minority, carry little weight. And this is what Umno and its allies want.

Louis: There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. In Malaysia, there are about 20 million Muslims. As such, out of 1.6 billion, only about 20 million are making the use of ‘Allah' an issue. That works out to be only about 1% of the Muslims in the world.

It is mind boggling. 99% of them do not see anything wrong, but this 1% insist it is. Maybe our Muslims here are of different breed. Even Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, does not object to the usage of the word.

SelangorKu: At Merdeka, Malaya was not a Muslim-majority country as more than 50 percent of the population were non-Muslim. Through racial engineering, Malaysia is now 60 percent Muslim. Sabah, in particular, has changed from a Christian-majority state to become a Muslim-majority state.

‘Allah' has been used for 200 years in Sabah/Sarawak before Malaya, let alone Malaysia, was formed. ‘Allah' has been used in the Middle East before Prophet Muhammad was born.

To claim the right for Muslims to burn the Bible because it contains "printing errors" is the height of arrogance. In the month of Ramadan, these actions are really unIslamic. Pray God to forgive them for they know not what they do.

Godman: Careful. they are just using this to distract from the real issues - corruption, murder, ballooning national debt, bankruptcy, etc.

They have mapped out a list of issues to rile us all up. So after this one, they will roll out another. If desperate, they may roll out two at a time.

TehTarik: In recent history, it was Hitler and the Nazis who encouraged the burning of holy books belonging to the Jews.

In May 1995, Micha Ullman's underground ‘Bibliotek' memorial was inaugurated in Berlin, where the Nazi book burnings began. The memorial consists of a window on the surface of the plaza, under which vacant bookshelves are lit and visible.

A bronze plaque bears a quote by Heinrich Heine: "Where books are burned, in the end people will burn."


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