SHAH ALAM, May 6 — The teachings of Jesus are not the words of God as he was a “human slave” and not divine, an Indonesian lecturer asserted at a forum on “Allah” here today.
In an hour-long lecture on the history of Christianity to more than 1,000 students from the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) here, Masyud S.M also argued that the parts of the Bible based on his teachings should simply be called “Tales of Jesus” instead of the “Gospel”.
“Jesus is only a human slave to Allah. So his words should not be treated as gospel,” Masyud insisted, claiming that gospel was an amalgamation of the words “god” and “spell”.
He also argued that books in the Bible written by Christ’s disciples such as Matthew, Mark, and Luke were considered hearsay and similarly should not be considered the Word of God.
“The so-called gospel is only Jesus’ words, speech, hence should not be called gospel,” he said, adding that it should be called Jesus’ bible or the tales of Jesus instead.
“The Christian gospel is a fake gospel.”
Citing experts he did not name, Masyud claimed that experts on the New Testament have said 82 per cent of the words ascribed to Jesus in the gospel were not actually spoken by him.
Tension between majority Muslims and Minority Christians in the country has been simmering in recent years, since the Home Ministry banned a Catholic weekly, Herald from publishing the word “Allah” in the paper, back in 2008.
Although a Court of Appeal decision prevented only the Catholic weekly from using the word, the court decision yesterday demonstrates that the higher court’s ruling can be used more broadly.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court had struck out Sabah SIB’s 2007 lawsuit against the Home Ministry for confiscating three boxes of Malay-language Christian publications that contained the word “Allah”.
The High Court said it was bound by the decision of the Court of Appeal, which ruled in October last year that the Arabic word “Allah” is not an integral part of the practice and faith of Christianity.
