“This is because ‘God’ in other religions is translated as “Tuhan” in Bahasa Melayu or Arabic, not ‘Allah’. Allah’ specifically referred to God in Islam. If they understand that, they would use the word ‘Tuhan’, not ‘Allah’.
“I accept the term ‘Allah’ had been used in Sabah and Sarawak before the two states joined Malaysia, but it is difficult to stop them from doing so now ... but in the peninsula, we have not heard of such practice.” .. Mahathir Mohammad as quoted in the Malaysian Insider.
Mahathir Mohammad is merely expressing what many ingnorant Malaysian Muslims believe about the usage of "Allah" by Christians in Malaysia, especially used by Christians in Sabah and Sarawak.
Those who understand the context and concept of "Allah" as used by Christians know that the word predates Islam and has been used by Christians in the Middle East long before the dawn of Islam. It is a term with definite meaning and not easily substituted with the word "Tuhan" which also means God (but used differently in the Bible) as suggested by Mahathir Mohammad.
I doubt many Malaysian Muslims, and that includes Mahathir Mohammad, know that the word "Allah" has been in continuous use in the Malay language "
first, in the printed edition of the Matthew’s Gospel in Malay (Ruyl, 1629); then, in the first complete Malay Bible (Leijdecker, 1733), and in the second complete Malay Bible (Klinkert, 1879) and the translations since." (
Bible Society of Malaysia)
Christians in Malaysia are not trying to inflame the sensitivities of Malaysian Muslims, as charged by certain Muslim quarters, when they insist on maintaining their right to use the term "Allah" in their Bibles and publications. It is the Muslims themselves, who are only now aware that the term "Allah" (a term that has been used for over 400 years in that part of the world!) is being used by people other than Muslims, and are getting all worked up and making accusations against Christians that have no basis in facts!
Accusations of the term being misused for proselytizing. Accusations of denigration of Islam. Claims that by allowing the term "Allah" to be used by non-Muslims as endangering the sanctity and status of Islam in the country! Oh my.
When a Christian uses the term "Allah" to refer to Almighty God, there is clearly no confusion in his/her mind that he/she is worshiping the Christian God and not the Muslim God.
There are people who suggest that both Christians and Muslims worship the same God "Allah" and why quibble over the name of the God that both are worshiping? But for many Christians, especially in the Western world, the use of "Allah" to refer to the Christian God is an abhorrence because to them Allah the Muslim God is a false God.
But using the term "Allah" to refer to Almighty God, the Father of heaven and earth is not an issue in the Arabic speaking world and neither is it an issue in Indonesia.
Muslim writers have been using Allah in their quotations of the Christian Bible since the ninth century. Jewish scholars have also been translating elohim and elah as Allah since the earliest known Arabic translations of the Torah in the ninth century until today. (Joshua Massey in Allah in Bible Translations)
In Malaysia, through ignorance and politicking by political and religious opportunists, the usage of the term "Allah" has become a source of religious and racial tension.
Should Malaysian Christians be the ones to pay the price for easily inflamed ignoramuses and political opportunists?
I say, "NO!". In the words of Rev Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, "
Malay has borrowed from Arabic, just as it has from Sanskrit and Portuguese. We have maintained the community has the right to use the word [Allah]."
