Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) is appealing to the authorities to amend policies on prohibiting certain words from use by religions other than Islam.

 

The prohibition has far-reaching effects on practices in churches affiliated with SIB and their congregation, many of whom are natives of Sarawak and Sabah, said its president Rev Justin Wan.

 

“It is our plea to the government to protect our inalienable and guaranteed rights to profess our faith and religion freely, as agreed by the founding fathers of Malaysia and as enshrined in the federal constitution,” Wan said in a statement yesterday.

 

Wan appealed to the government to review and amend existing laws, directives or orders pertaining to the prohibition of certain religious terms, including the word ‘Allah’, by non-Muslims.

 

Such amendment or review is necessary for the congregation to continue practising and professing their beliefs and faiths freely in Malaysia as they have always done, he said.

 

He said that the word ‘Allah’ has always been an integral part of the belief and worship of SIB indigenous and Bahasa Malaysia congregations since the early 1900s, before the formation of Malaysia.

 

“From that time until now, the word ‘Allah’ and other related words were used in all the Malay and native language Bibles, and in all oral proceedings, prayers, singing and deliberations amongst the SIB members.

 

“Usage of the word has become part of us and is deeply embedded and entrenched in the religious practices, cultures and languages of our churches and its members,” he said.

 

'Taking away what's important'

Wan said that various communities – including the Iban, Lun Bawang, Bidayuh, Kelabit, Kenyah, Kayan, Penan, Berawan – use the term “Allah” when referring to God in their respective languages.

 

About 95 percent of church members worship and pray in native languages or Bahasa Malaysia, he added.

 

Wan pointed out that the prohibition goes deeper than stopping the use of certain words – by taking away church members’ means of obtaining hope, spiritual strength and sense of purpose.

 

“In a sense, the prohibition takes away from us most of the important things in our lives,” Wan added.

 

Thousands of East Malaysians who are either students attending tertiary institutions or who work in the peninsula continue to use the word ‘Allah’ in their worship, he said.

 

Even if the prohibition were to apply only to the states in the peninsula, Wan said the high mobility between East and West Malaysia makes observance difficult, particularly for church members.

 

This, he said, would have the overall effect of harming national integration and destroying all efforts at realising the country’s multi-ethnic 1Malaysia vision.

 

“We therefore, humbly plead with the government to understand our predicament which is very real, in the context of our history and in the manner in which the subject word had also become affectionately our own,” Wan said.

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