I refer to the letter Other Christian denominations not using 'Allah' .

The writer keeps saying the term ‘other Catholic denominations’. Firstly, this is incorrect.

Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity.

The others that he mentions, the Mormons (which are the same as the Church of Latter Day Saints), the Orthodox Churches, the Lutherans, the Southern Baptists, etc are all denominations of Christianity and are not Catholic denominations.

There really is no such thing as ‘Catholic denominations’ except there is Orthodox Catholicism and the non-Orthodox.

Also, ‘all’ Christian religions, including Orthodox Russian, Greek, etc, do, in fact, believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Sprit and the Virgin Mary as well.

They only differ on certain practices but all believe in the Old Testament and the New Testament. However, Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary.

I spent 10 years living in Moscow, Russia; two years in Almaty, Kazakhstan and people there have used the term ‘Allah’ for God.

You will also find that in certain African countries and even in Middle-East countries, the term ‘Allah’ is and has been used for God.

The fact is, Christianity uses whatever word a population is more a accustomed to. When Christianity was first being introduced to the Eskimo/Inuit, they did not understand the word or term for ‘Shepherd’.

So instead, the word was replaced with ‘fisherman’, a word they knew the meaning of. This is a classic case of using a word or term that suits the culture you are speaking to. This is something that any first year anthropology student in the US learns.

The term ‘Allah’ is being used in more than 22 countries worldwide for the term ‘God’ by Christian denominations, a fact that is easily looked up on the Internet, let alone any university library in the sociological/cultural anthropological areas.

The point here is that does any country or religion have a right to say that a language belongs to them and them only? I do not see any other place in the world saying such a thing and besides ‘Allah’ is not originally a Malaysian word.

So how is this any different than the US telling Malaysians they cannot use or should not use the word ‘women’, or ‘car’ or any other word since it is not your word?

But then again, these words do not come from nor belong to the US either. No one country or religion or political group can lay claim to a language especially when that word from a language is not even their own.