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

I must say that the writer’s reasoning is far from godly either. Being a born-again Christian, I am exasperated that Malaysia is truly ignorant about religions. ‘Allah’ is an Arabic term for God being used universally by Muslims and Christians worldwide.

Who is he that goes all way to stop the publication of the word ‘Allah’ when all languages are derived from Him? It is proclaimed that all Muslims and Christians are descendants from Abraham. If Muslims decide to call him Ibrahim and Christians interchange between Abraham and Ibrahim, what wrong is there?

If my brother calls our mother ‘Mama’ and I decide to interchange between ‘Mummy’ and ‘Mama’, what crime have I committed? Just because God chose to reveal His trinity concept to his other children, it doesn’t mean that He has changed. Who are we to judge who and what He is?

If we proclaim water as one element, does it mean that its composition of two hydrogen molecules and an oxygen molecule is false? If one had presented this discovery to the royal courts of England or France in the Middle Ages one would likely be burned at the stake. I am not a physicist but I believe God’s evidence is in our nature for He has created it.

Therefore, the word ‘Allah’ is not exclusive to any religion. I believe that we are the only nation in the world that prohibits the use of the term ‘Allah’ in the Malay translated Holy Book or Christian Malay publications. The world is laughing at our ignorance and that is what I am most angry about.

I have never felt this low in my esteem as a Malaysian which is further compounded by incompetent politicians elected who are keen to turn our parliament into a fully public-funded circus. And who says that only Catholics are using this word and not any other Christian denomination?

I am not Catholic and sometimes in Church we sing Malay gospels written by Indonesians which occasionally interchange the terms ‘Allah’ and ‘Tuhan’ depending on its rhyme.

Does that mean all churches in Malaysia will be banned from using songs from Indonesia or elsewhere that use the word ‘Allah’ or it must be substituted with the appropriate word before it can be projected on the screen for the worshipers?

Indonesia, being the world’s most populous Muslim nation even allows Christian broadcasting in their media which can be received on our TVs too though the reception is poor. I was surprised but is it any wonder that its people are more diverse and dynamic although it is one of the poorest countries in the world? In my opinion, other Christian denomination are not making a brouhaha over this matter because it will not affect their faith or belief.

They would just shake their heads in disbelief and leave it in God’s hands. The Catholic Church, being the largest denomination, have their reasons for doing so which is best known to them.

But I would like to remind my brethren in Christ that in the Bible, one of the spies that wants to trap Jesus asked the Lord, ‘Teacher, we know what you speak and teach is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us (Jews) to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’

Jesus saw through their duplicity and said to them, ‘Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscriptions are on it?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. Jesus then said to them, ‘Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s’.

What does this means? It simply means that if the government would want you to follow its rules without threatening your faith and practice as Christ’s follower, please do so. It makes no sense to go against it even though they know not what they were doing.

I think its time to stop all this nonsense before it gets out of hand. True Christians are not ritualistic and therefore the absence of that ‘sensitive’ word would not deprive one from entering Heaven if the soul has received salvation.

God is more concerned over what we did for Him in our lifetime than what we call Him. That is why we haven’t seen Christians protesting on the streets with banners defending this right because it is silly.