The name is not as important as the message
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It is the positive common ground in our respective faiths that we should be celebrating. Twitter, the treasure trove of opinions, was abuzz following a landmark decision by the Malaysian Court of Appeal earlier in the month to ban the Catholic weekly The
Some wondered why the court overturned a 2009 High Court decision to allow said usage, while others rejoiced at the latest turn of events.
There was also no shortage of people who stooped to personal, baseless attacks against one another, despite attempts to hold a clean, practical discussion. After reading one too many such tweets, I had to stop following the heated debate, and I wondered why it really matters what name one should call or give God.
A Christian friend said he had always been taught that the Bahasa Malaysia version of God was referred to as Tuhan (a more general term for “God” in Bahasa Malaysia), therefore he questioned The Herald’s insistence on using the word “Allah” when it could easily use the more acceptable term, Tuhan.
Since my childhood years in a Muslim majority area near Kuala Lumpur, I had been indoctrinated to believe that terms like “Allah” were exclusive to Muslims, not just here but everywhere else. Yet, frequent interactions with Muslim friends led me to unwittingly use such terms in conversation, and I remained oblivious to the looks I was eliciting.
I vividly remember the first time I hosted the weekly school assembly, where the script included Assalamuaalaikum (Peace be upon you).
Thinking nothing of it, I greeted the assembly with the term, leading to the headmistress taking me aside afterwards to “clarify” that only Muslims were allowed to use the greeting.
Fast forward to 2008 and I was in university. When the “Allah” issue cropped up, I burrowed into available resources to trace its usage in other places. Imagine my surprise when I found that the word “Allah” itself pre-dates the birth of Islam in the sixth century, with non-Islamic Arabs using the term before the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
The word was also used by Christians and Jews in Arab countries for generations, but it is interesting to note that a Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research poll this year revealed 83 per cent of Muslims interviewed had agreed that usage of “Allah” is their absolute right.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal’s common finding was that “Allah” was not an integral part of the Christian faith and that using it could cause confusion. The court also said it granted the government’s appeal in the interest of public safety.
For the record, I am neither Christian nor Muslim. In fact, I am hardly classifiable as religious. Yet, I believe whatever one’s reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the court, it should not affect one’s faith as, ultimately, God is to each of us what we believe God to be.
My opinion on this issue is reflected in a scene in one of my favourite films, the 2011 Indian Tamil drama, “Vaanam” (Sky).
In this scene, rock star Bharath Chakravarthy and his girlfriend Laasya are attacked by religious fanatics as they travel to perform at a concert. They are saved by strangers, causing Bharath to reflect on life.
Laasya and the other band members are shocked and angry that people could even use God as a reason to fight, yet Bharath says the problem is not God, but language.
To explain, he empties a water bottle onto the ground and asks his friends to name the substance.
When they say “water”, Bharath asks what it is called in Tamil.
“Thannir. Niru in Telugu and paani in Hindi. So what?” his friends reply.
Bharath responds, “The product is just one, but each person calls it differently.
“Similarly, in one man’s language God is Rama, in another man’s language God is Jesus and in yet another man’s language God is Allah.
“The problem is not God, but how we address God.”
So, let’s not forget where God really lives – in the hearts of those who acknowledge their wrongdoings.
Let’s not forget that the concept of God is the same, regardless of the name given.
And let’s not forget that every religious person has his or her own way to refer to God, which is best kept on a personal level and not blown up as a national problem.
