KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Two self-declared defenders of Islam warned Christians today against provoking Muslims more with any further statement on their right to call their god “Allah”.
Datuk Hasan Ali and Datuk Ibrahim Ali, the heads of Malay groups Jalur Tiga (Jati) and Perkasa respectively, demanded the Holy See’s representative, Archbishop Joseph Marino, retract his recent remarks on the “Allah” controversy, saying Muslim Malaysians will not brook non-Muslim encroachment into their religion’s affairs.
The two group leaders said they would hand in a memorandum of their dissatisfaction to the apostolic nuncio, or papal envoy, as a last warning not to interfere with Malaysia’s Islamic affairs.
Hasan went a step further however, saying that Jati would not accept any apology or any act to smooth over the storm that has reignited.
“The memorandum will serve as our first action... we will not accept any apologies or any act to mitigate the problem,” Hasan told a news conference at his home that fringes the leafy suburban enclave of Taman Tun Dr Ismail here.
“There will be more follow-up actions and we will stand up against anyone who will cause religious strife regardless of who, be it Marino or anyone,” he added.
Hasan said the memorandum will only be presented by the group’s leaders, to avoid any sort of demonstration or rally during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which he said was “holy”.
His Perkasa ally Ibrahim added that Marino would be held responsible for any potential flare-up between Muslims and Christians here.
“If he does not retract his statement, then he is responsible for what will happen if the Malaysian Muslims and Christians in this country fight, we will hold him responsible,” the Perkasa president said.
Hasan, a former Selangor PAS commissioner who had been sacked from the Islamist party last year, pronounced that Islam will declare any Muslim who defends his or her faith as “mati syahid” or a martyr who has earned a place in heaven for protecting Islam.
“So you can get the picture of how serious this matter is,” he said.
In his first media interview here last Thursday, Marino, the Vatican’s first envoy to Malaysia, observed that the “Allah” storm that has been raging here for the past five years was unique to this Southeast Asian nation due to the widespread use of the Malay language, the lingua franca of Malaysia’s Bumiputera Christians.
The apostolic nuncio indicated that the local churches have presented a “logical and acceptable” argument to counter the allegations by some hardline Muslims here that “Allah”, a word of Middle Eastern origin, was exclusive to Islam.
“But the document that they produce seems to be very well-presented in terms of explaining why Christians use this word,” the apostolic nuncio said, referring to the Christian Federation of Malaysia’s (CFM) fact sheet on the “Allah” released a couple of months ago.
Marino was careful to point out that the ongoing appeal by the Home Ministry to reverse a 2009 High Court judgment in favour of the Catholic Church was an “internal matter” when asked to comment further on the dispute.
The statement drew immediate condemnation from Perkasa, Jati and several other Muslim groups who called on the Najib administration to expel the Vatican envoy and shut its office down.
Several government leaders like Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman and the Islamic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom have also censured Marino for what they saw as foreign interference in Malaysia’s domestic affairs.
But Ibrahim, whom had previously called on Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak to be, “for once”, firm in defending Muslims in the “Allah” controversy, questioned why Putrajaya has not summon Marino for explanation.
“As much as we welcome his statement, I want to know why has Anifah not summon Marino and demand explanation..I hope its (Anifah’s criticism) not just political rhetoric,” he said.
The Perkasa president again reiterated the call for strong government action against persons like Marino and “others who patronise Islam”.
He warned that inaction on the part of Putrajaya would force Malaysian Muslims to “take matters into their own hands”.
“We never discriminate other religion in this country, we are only reacting to their (non-Muslims) actions..and if when no actions are taken against these people, Muslims will react and it will come to a point where they will start taking matters into their own hands,” he said.
But Hasan then stressed that Perkasa, Jati and its allies will only act within the law, saying its plan to submit the memorandum at the Vatican’s office here on Friday signaled its plan to tackle the issue in “very civilised and Islamic manner.
The 2009 High Court decision upholding the Catholic Church’s constitutional right to use the word “Allah” had shocked Muslims who considered the word to only refer to the Muslim God. It also led to Malaysia’s worst religious strife, with houses of worship throughout the country coming under attack.
Putrajaya later decided to appeal the decision but the matter was left to fester until now, over four years later, allowing opposing sides to harden their stances.
On Monday, the Catholic Church filed an application to strike out the Home Ministry’s appeal.
The federal government’s petition to reverse the 2009 High Court judgment was originally scheduled for case management in the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.
But in light of the latest development, the Court of Appeal will have to attend to the Church’s strike-out application before it can decide a hearing date for the government’s challenge.
Muslims represent over 60 per cent of Malaysia’s population of 28 million, while Christians make up less than a tenth of the number.
