MARCH 14 — Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world today. However, if we were to base on the acts, behaviours and rhetorics of those so called Malay leaders claiming to be defenders of Islam, we would think that Islam is about to perish from this God’s earth; that the usage of words such as “Allah” and other religiously-linked words by non-Muslims are so dangerous that the world is about to face Armageddon because of it.

Why is this so, you may ask? The answer is actually pretty simple. This is the only way these people could seize the mantle of being “warriors” for the Malays by dividing the natural multitudes of people created by Allah into an Us versus Them narrative. They need us to feel superior to others, create a hatred for others, so that they become the saviour of race and religion. That is the extent of their objective in order to reap influence, power, and finally position and wealth by being the authority above all of us.

Al Hajj 22:40 – “[They are] those who have been driven from their homes unjustly, for saying only that “Our Lord is God.” And, if God did not intervene by using some people to drive out others, many monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, where God’s name is much remembered, would have been destroyed. God is sure to help those who help His cause, for truly God is strong and mighty.”

It is beyond doubt that Allah never made His name an exclusive domain of where or which religion should God’s name is to only be invoked. But this is not so it seems in our community. It is this peculiarity of the Malay-Muslim world that is even bizarre to other Muslims around the world. Such controversies does not exist elsewhere but in the Malay-Muslim domain.

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In my opinion, it is time that the Muslim ummah and the Malay community act with total rejection of “leaders” who use religion to differentiate our Malay community from the other communities in Malaysia. They do not want Malays to think for themselves. It is crucially important for those riding the fervour of religion to ensure that the Malays follow them without question, with no critical thinking and no reasoning. Theirs is for religion to be their sole domain for interpretation and conclusions. Theirs is the final say in all things religion. Also observe, that their final say will always end up putting a wall between the Malay-Muslims and the rest of the world. And in addition, should any of us disagree with their say, their solution is punishment of the highest order they can bring upon those who disagree.

They will justify and describe themselves as the saviour of the ummah by forcing a rigid and narrow doctrine upon Muslims of this Nation. Should we allow such teachings and worldview to continue to spread, I fear it will be the death of Islam in Malaysia.

This is not a new phenomenon in the history of human civilization. During the Golden Age of Islam, all knowledge, secular and religious, exchanges and debates centred in the glorious city of Baghdad. There was no such concept of an in-betweener between Allah and the individual. But in the same period, Europe was in the Dark Ages. It’s religious leaders held the key of thought in their communities through the restrictions to religious knowledge by the limited capability of the populace in Latin. All interpretations and finality of thought was the domain of the priesthood. They were the go-between and interpreters for mere mortals and the wants of God. And similarly their final say is to be unchallenged at the risk of the highest form of punishment.

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Hundreds of years later, we see a flip in the destiny of these two civilizations. When Muslims stopped being inclusive, reject and banish critical thinking and the room for freedom of thought is no longer, where have all the glory and success of Muslims have gone? This is now the fate of Muslims, especially Malay-Muslims of today.

The Islamic world in general has no qualms for anyone of any religion to use the term “Allah” in the Middle East or anywhere else for that matter, but not so for our country, why should this be? The Islamic world today is striving hard to integrate and be part of the multitudes of Nations that make up the world. But in Malaysia, voices of extremism seemed louder than ever insisting that Malay-Muslims be more and more exclusive; and differentiation and separation of Malay-Muslims from other races and religions has somehow become a priority in life!

What irony when Islam is a religion that practices moderation and the middle road as its central precept. Why then do the teachings of differentiating, to be cynical and worrisome of others and what is out there seemed to trump the principles of accepting and having faith in the all knowing God is not the road taken by Malay-Muslims in their daily lives?

Islam is a universal religion. It cannot be willed and be the sole possession of any race or people. A religious term originating in a language of a people does not mean a monopoly of that term by said people. The sharing of terminologies, words and even phrases are a feature of a shared civilization. And such a sharing is the hallmark of the strength of its unity of the diverse culture, race and religion in that civilisation.Sarawakian Christian Jill Ireland’s lawyers Annou Xavier (right) and Lim Heng Seng (left) are seen at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, March 10, 2021, after the High Court ruled as unconstitutional the Malaysian government’s directive on a total ban on the use of the word ‘Allah’ in Christian publications. ― Picture by Hari Anggara
Sarawakian Christian Jill Ireland’s lawyers Annou Xavier (right) and Lim Heng Seng (left) are seen at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, March 10, 2021, after the High Court ruled as unconstitutional the Malaysian government’s directive on a total ban on the use of the word ‘Allah’ in Christian publications. ― Picture by Hari Anggara

The recent High Court decision in affirming the usage of terms such as Allah, Baitullah, solat and others in Christian books in Bahasa Melayu-Indonesia has been made a racial issue by extremists in our midst. Allah as a term in the Bahasa Melayu Bible has been around for almost 400 years, especially in Sabah and Sarawak.

Islam do not teach its followers to be obsessively vain and prideful nor for us to be cruel. The rights of Sabahans and Sarawakians to practice their religion in their way are guaranteed in the three nation agreement that made Malaysia as enshrined in MA63. The verdict of the High Court merely affirms this Agreement and finds that the seizing of the religious sermon recordings to be against the spirit and facts of our history. This is a verdict that is consistent with the philosophy of Islam as a just and universal religion.

Malaysia is for all. Allah is for all no matter where we are, or however we may believe in Him. It is not for us mere mortals to decide upon what Allah has created to be in existence amongst us.

It is with this we must conclude that the time has come for us, Malay-Muslims, to stop being the victims of these purveyors of religion using the fear of punishments of after-death to cow us to their bidding and false-authority, to teach us to hate others amongst our fellow humans on things that only Allah has the final say at the end of times. Let us, with grace of Allah, be those to bring together all of us in this multi racial and multi religious Malaysia as one people together.

“People, We created you from male and female, and made you nations and tribes so that you may know one another. The best among you in the sight of God is the one who is most mindful of God. God is All-knowing and All-Aware.” Al Hujurat 49:13

*This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.