By Opalyn Mok
January 24, 2013
GEORGE TOWN, Jan 24 ― Heavy police surveillance will be placed on a field in front of Dewan Ahmad Badawi in Bagan Luar, Butterworth on Saturday, ahead of a purported “festival” to torch copies of Malay-language bibles there.
Penang police chief DCP Datuk Abd Rahim Hanafi said the police will not hesitate to take stern action against any groups or individuals who turn up at the site to take part in the event.
On Tuesday, a priest had lodged a police report over the distribution of anonymous pamphlets advertising a “festival” to burn the Malay language bibles at the field on Sunday.
Abd Rahim warned the public not to take part in the event.
“I urge the public not to be influenced but the ‘rumours’ in this pamphlet which was obviously created by irresponsible individuals to threaten the safety and harmony of the public,” he said.
He also warned the public not to spread further rumours on this matter and that those found to spread such rumours will be arrested and charged under Sections 298 and 507 of the Penal Code, for uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any religious groups and criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication respectively.
Earlier this week, Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali also called for the Malay version of the bible containing the word “Allah” and Jawi script to be burned.
The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) has come out to condemn those who had threatened to burn the sacred holy book and had called on those who are spreading hatred through such threats for political gain to cease and desist.
The state government had also urged the police to take the matter seriously.
As extra precaution, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had instructed the Seberang Perai Municipal Council (MPSP) president Maimunah Mohd Shariff to ensure that no one enters the Dewan Ahmad Badawi, which belonged to MPSP, at the designated time.
The “Allah” dispute, which first erupted after the watershed Election 2008, remains a hot-button topic in the run-up to this year’s polls.
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For our thoughts:
(1) Muslims shouldn't burn any other religious scriptures. The Holy Prophet Muhammad s.a.w told us to respect other religion.
(2) There are many opinions about the Christians using the word 'Allah' refering to God. The fact is the name Allah is widely used by Christians and other religions out there.
(3) Yes the question is - why only now? Why only now Christians in Malaysia would like to use name of Allah? Why not long time ago? Christians existed in Malaysia since 7th century. And before, they used Tuhan which literally means God in Malay.
(4) We can see where they are going now. It's psychology. They know no Muslim interested in listening to their preaching when they used Tuhan. With using the real name of God - Allah, they will get the attention of Muslims. The name of Allah is no stranger amongst the Christians. The Arab Christians use it and so some English Bible still maintaining the name of Allah referring to God; namely - Eli, Elohim, Elo all referring to God in Hebrew which is a sister language of Arabic.
(5) Their decision of using the name Allah is nothing but to attracts Malay community especially. Sadly to say - Malay Malaysian are born as Muslim but still there are many of them who still do not understand Islam completely. Weak in akidah, Tauhid and Iman. There - the Christians knows the weakness of Malay Muslims here, therefore they would like to take this opportunity to attract these people to join them by preaching in Malay.
(6) Times thought them a lesson. Very important lesson indeed. The Christians in Malaysia used English as their intermediate language. Well, Christianity was brought here by the Englishman therefore English was used in preaching the religion by their missionaries. And English is a common language amongst the non Malay in Malaysia. No offence - although the English level in Malaysia is still not up to the right standards but Malaysian got no problem in understanding the language.
(7) Meanwhile Malays always prefer to speak and communicate in their native language although most of the Malays understood English. But in daily life - they would prefer to communicate in their native language.
(8) Years after years of preaching, the numbers of Christians in Malaysia increased. Large numbers of Malaysian Indians (originally Hindu) and Chinese (originally Buddhist) has converted to Christianity. How is that come about? Well, there are no strong missionaries from the Hindu / Buddhist group in Malaysia. Yes we do have tamples for both respective religions but thats it. We dont see their missionaries running active across the country preaching.
(9) Nowadays if you have a Buddhist / Hindu friends - if you asked them about their religion, I repeat Religion NOT culture - not many of them can answer. Why? Because they dont have the right understanding. That's why. So that shows how limited their knowledge on their religion.
(10) Christian missionaries aware about this. English is not a problem for the Indians and Chinese. They move and preach towards them. As a results numbers of them converting to Christianity.
(11) Christianity is beautiful. Don't get me wrong - when I said it's beautiful, I mean their theory is beautiful. Why did I say that? Ok for one second imagine if someone who has no knowledge about religion, about God, about the meaning of this life. One thing they know is that one day you going to die. And not knowing whats gonna happen after that. You must agree with me for those who has no faith, death is like a worst thing. As a Muslim we know death is part of the process of life and it's not the end of life.
(12) For Buddhist especially they do not believe in heaven. They believe that every soul will be going to hell. There's no good thing about death from their perspective.
(13) This is where the Christian come and offer them some kind of good offer. The Christian believes that everyone can go to heaven as long as you believe that Jesus Christ (pbuh) was born and die as God and believe that Jesus (pbuh) died for our sins and you'll have the ticket to heaven. Simple and beautiful. Who wouldn't want to buy that?
(14) People who has no belief would buy that. Hey come on..you dont have to do anything. The only thing you have to do is to believe that Jesus (pbuh) was born and die as God and believe that he has died for our sins. You believe that, you'll be in heaven once you die. Regardless if you have sins your soul or not but once you believe that, heaven is for you. Your sins will be forgiven immediately once you believe that Jesus has died for your sin. Isn't beautiful? Indeed it is.
(15) We Muslim, we don't buy that. Why not? We understood Islam and we believe in heaven and hell. For someone who has logic, knowledge and faith - the theory above doesn't make any sense. I'm not going to elaborate any further on the differences between Islam and Christianity, that's not the topic here.
(16) It's only to give you the view on why Christian in Malaysia insisted to use the name of Allah. That is to attract Malay Muslim who has no concrete knowledge in their religion and weak in their iman. It's psychological war.
(17) But this doesn't give us any reason to go and burn their book. Why worry? Strengthen your Iman, practice it, preach it to your children, brothers, sisters, family and friends. Isn't Da'wah is part of our responsibility? The responsibilty of Da'wah was not just left to the Messengers but also for us.
(18) In the Holy Quran stated:“Who is better in speech than one who calls to Allah, does righteous deeds and says indeed I am among the Muslims.”
Surah Fussilat 41:33
“Let there arise among you a group inviting to all that is good, enjoining righteousness and forbidding evil. Those are the successful ones.”
Surah Ali-Imran 3:104
“Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good preaching.”
Surah An-Nahl 16:125
(19) But that's not the case. How many of us see da'wah as our responsibility? How many of us would do that? We are too afraid to open our mouth. We're not even dare to open our mouth to teach our own children and family members!
(20) Nowadays most people happily passing their responsibility to teachers and schools. We got money and pay to the school and expect teacher to teach them all? And when something went wrong we blame the friends of our child and the teacher at school for not educating our children good enough? What is wrong with us?
(21) That is responsibility of every parents to educate their children. Yes, no doubt we still need to send our children to school but how much can the school teach our children? They go to school there's like 12 subjects they have to learn. The school have like thousands of children to take care of. When they come home they spend whole night to complete their homework or study for exams. And we thought that we have done our part by waking up in the morning drop them to school, fetch them home and give them money to spend? And when we are at home give the responsibility to the maid to clean them, to clothes them and even to tuck them at night? Seriously.. what is wrong with us? And when something went wrong we blame the other party?
(22) Come on, do not make any reason. Yes we're working but sometime we forgot what are we working for actually. We forgot what is our main responsibility. Alhamdulillah we solat 5 times a day, we fast in Ramadhan, we pay zakat, and we went for Hajj. But we forgot in making da'wah towards our family members. We passed that to their teachers at school. We have let ourselves down again.
(23) And now Muslims in Malaysia is panicking when the Christian decided to use the name Allah in their scripture. With the reason this could get Muslim confused. Come on! What kind of reason is that? That is so lame.
(24) We wouldn't be confused if we have thought ourselves and our children well. We have the Quran, the hadith and books everywhere in the country. We have classes at Masjid. Go and learn and teach it to your family.
(25) And in order to show our disagreement for Christian using the name Allah, we now going to burn their bible. The same way as how the Christian shows their disagreement with Islam - that is they burn our Quran. And now what? Are we copying them?
(26) We have to understand. They - Christians believes they are correct. Just like everybody else do. They are so eager in preaching their religion. They will find a way what is the best way to get the message to their 'customers'. They are doing the job.
(27) My question is - what are we doing? Whining and complaining, calling the government to stop them. The government couldn't do much. Burning the bible is the best solution we got? Unbelievable.
(28) Steadfast in your religion O Muslim. Learn everyday, be prepared. The Quran and the hadith is everywhere. Ask right people to get the right answer. Once we have understood Islam we will have no problem In Sha Allah. If happen one of the Christian missionaries come to you trying to convert you - if you have the knowledge you will convert them instead In Sha Allah.
(29) May Allah guide us all. Ameen.
