3-in-1 allah, etc., Bloggers against Blasphemies
Updated 5pm:-4/1 Home Ministry files appeal at Court of Appeal against the High Court decision that allows Catholic weekly, Herald, to use the word 'Allah'/STAR
Original posting ...
A campaign, in the name of Allah. Inevitably, a group of bloggers has stared a campaign, Bloggers against Blasphemies, in response to the High Court ruling allowing the use of "Allah". Blogger SatD, who is initiating the BaB campaign, worries that the judgment would test the collective consciousness of the Malay-Muslim majority of the Malaysian population. "At what price", he asks."... here's the thing about Collective Consciousness.......it defines what is acceptable and what is not in a society.....if killing a person or raping a child is considered acceptable and does not offend the collective consciousness of the society..then it is not a crime to do so.....in that particular society...and the law which governs us is also based on the Collective Consciousness Value System......."Read SatD's call to back this campaign, h e r e. He attaches his posting with the blistering "... a 500-yr old itch?" arguments by Apo, who's hoping that his piece will help the PM's Dept and the Home Ministry in their appeal against the High Court decision.pic, today's headlines of the PM calling for calm.
Also, read Anas Zubedy's "Allah, the Bible, Christians and Muslims" here to understand why even the more open-minded Muslims can be offended by the High Court judgement:'Failing to do so will create mistrust because the correct term for God in Malay is Tuhan.The Muslims will question your consistency and sincerity.
Because the real issue here is Trust. Not the technicality of the term Allah, Tuhan, Elohim, Elah etc.'
More related postings:
Bujai: May "ALLAH" bless Augustine Paul
source : rocky bruThe Allah Name Issue: A Patronymic Nom de Plume, or merely the Scratching of a Five Hundred Year old Itch?
Posted on 1:53 AM by satDApocryphalist......the blogger without a blog is back with guns blazing........
“Justice Datuk Lau Bee Lan, in her oral decision, held that the Herald had the constitutional right to use the word in the magazine to propagate the Christian religion but not Islam.
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She said that pursuant to Article 11(4) of the Federal Constitution, it was an offence for non-Muslims to use the word "Allah" to Muslims to propagate the religion.
But it was not an offence for non-Muslims to use the word to the non-Muslims for the purpose of religion, she added.”
The judgement disallowing the ban by Justice Lau rests partially on the above reasons but if one were to continue with a little scrutiny, together with a little research, one will find that that same argument too would be the sole reason FOR allowing the ban. Perhaps Justice Lau missed reading the following report by the Washington Times:…Some states restrict the use of certain religious terms by Christians in the Malay language, lest Muslims be confused. Yet, despite the obstacles, some Christian proselytizers are busy.
The Rev. Kumar — not his real name — recalls the religious police rattling his front gate in the middle of the night. The warning was clear.
"But I am not afraid," Mr. Kumar said. "My work is God's will and I have a worthy cause to fight for. [Malays] have a right to find Jesus." .
Who is the main “target” for these “busy Christian Proselytizers? The Malays! The very exact reason, object with which this whole schnoozle began in the first place. At least that’s what the good Reverend Murphy Pakia--- err I mean Reverend Kumar contended. And when Justice Lau gave the following judgment:
“She said the minister had also failed to adduce evidence that the use of the word would threaten national security and create misunderstanding and confusion among Muslims.”
I wonder how much different THAT would if she had read the following paragraph in the same report:
…His evangelical church has 12 branches throughout Malaysia and 30 affiliates, and Mr. Kumar estimates that 100 Muslims are converting to Christianity every month in the country. He said there has been a marked increase in interest in the past three years, since the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Or perhaps the following, from the same report:-… She (the converted malay muslim) conceded, though, that part of the assistance involved introducing Malays to Christian doctrine. She recalled parking herself at a McDonald's wearing a Muslim head scarf to more effectively introduce Muslim schoolgirls to the Bible.
In Kuala Lumpur, boys who are a part of Mr. Kumar's proselytizing movement frequent mosques.
Christians reputedly also have resorted to sponsoring picnics for Malay children and offering them gifts.
You know what I personally think? I think the above account by the Washington Post is pure fabrication and fiction. But if it is true, hey! That alone could be ample reason to ponder upon the rationale behind the judgements regarding the lifting of the ban!
But then, if anything, this Washington Post article that unbeknownstly reveal the true intent and cite the vigor with which certain christian missionaries increase their efforts to meet up with their conversion KPIs border that of laughable insanity. But let us all face it. All religions have conversion agendas. Some more pronounced than others perhaps, but then in the case of the missionary-cum-colonialists that had as their dictum “For Gold, Glory and God”, the geopolitics of these agendas is worthy of scrutiny.
To begin with, note that the bulk of these proselytizing efforts have mainly, in the past few hundred years or so, been concentrated solely onto the eastern and southern parts of the globe. The Post reports:-“ In the cramped lobby of Mr. Kumar's headquarters, a magazine headline reads: "Storming the Enemy's Stronghold."
The first paragraph explains, "Within the 10/40 window," referring to the area stretching roughly from the Middle East through India, China and into Southeast Asia, "lie 62 of the least evangelized nations on this planet." The area is viewed by some zealots as the last stronghold preventing Christian global dominance. ”
Ah! Christian Global Dominance. Had Justice Lau’s decision resulted in the continued banning, surely such Dominance would be very difficult to materialize.
Why the obsession to baptise the east? Well simple. Because lately in the west many people are leaving Christianity, mostly towards atheism if they no longer believe in God, or to Islam (mostly) if they still do but feel a need to satisfy the quest and questions that they have been having all this while. A great majority of these converts are personalities of high standing in society---like artistes, public figures, politicians, scientist etc. The ones not in the limelight mostly are made up of intellectuals or have high education levels.
They sent in Yvonne Ridley to infiltrate the Taliban, she converted to Islam instead. They installed a staunch Christian, Captain Cormier Michel, to lead the command of the International Security Assistance Force to kill the Afghans, he converted to Islam instead. They used Michael Jackson, who once declared “I would rather not sing than realize that my songs are listened to by the Arabs”, to infiltrate the hearts and minds of middle east youngsters, and HE converted to Islam instead. They sent in St. John Philby to do some colonialist expansionism works in the middle east and HE found Islam. They sent in Disciple of Christ Joseph Estes to Egypt to convert muslims there and HE got converted instead.
In fact highly respectable priests---whose KPI would definitely include the number of fresh new converts they could bring in, THEMSELVES found the light in Allah instead: Bishop of Uramiah Benjamin Keldani, Bologne priest Anselm Tormeeda, Pentecostal church minister Kenneth Jenkins, Sri Lankan Catholic Father George Anthony, Egyptian Coptic strongman Abraham Philobus, United Methodist Deacon Jerald F. Dirks, Lutheran Archbishop Martin Mwaipopo, Jehovah Witness Minister Raphael Narbaez, Russian Orthodox Archpriest Vaicheslav Polosin, German Catholic Doctor of Theology Dr A.R. Lehmann all had converted to Islam when they attempted to “study the religion deeper so they could understand the psyche of the Muslim world for the sole purpose of converting them”.
Even the staunch questions of atheism could not bear the brunt of truth when its moment has come: atheists Zhang ChengZhi from Communist China, Kazakhstan president Nazarbayez, British Museum’s Professor Martin Lings, even Singapore Chief Minister (former) Lim Yew Hock.
Other interesting converts include Radu Fremos, Dracula’s brother (the real one), Cambridge Professor Tim Winter, Italian Ambassador T. Cardilli, notorious assassin Carlos the Jackal, famous KGB operative Alexander Litvinenko, US congressmen Andre Carson and Keith Ellison, American poet Daniel Moore, Ethiopian Emperor Lij Iyasu, Moldavian Prince Illie Rares, Lutheran James Yee, “I gotcha” singer Joe Tex, and many others.
When you have public personalities of repute embracing Islam, you can imagine the impact it has on the lesser stratas of society. Fox News carried a special report that highlights an alarming number of American youths converting to Islam everyday. And contrary to popular notions of causes and effects, the sales of Quran SPIKED in United States immediately following the aftermath of the 9-11 incident despite the west’s insistence (helped by christians everywhere else) that Islam has to do with Terrorism. Despite Lavonising the incident to demonise this pure religion, Islam is---and has been so far---the world’s fastest growing religion, come whatever issues.
It is understandable then, to expect that Christian missionaries turn elsewhere for conversion KPIs. It is understandable too to expect that they do this with vengeance and a hidden rage: rage that resulted from THEIR own adherents leaving the faith in masses.
Now if in the west former christians are attracted to Islam through intellectual ponderings, dogmatic scrutiny or just pure search-for-truth questionings, the situation is different with the converts in the east, mostly towards Christianity. Many are motivated by monetary rewards given by the missionaries themselves. I watched one biblical series regarding missionary activities in Indonesia in the United States one day and in one, they showed a priest reciting the bible in malay and the congregation, made up of some very poor children there, reciting along with him. After the sermon or recital was over, he took out wads of rupiah notes and distributed them to each, saying “Nah, ini gaji kalian!” The Vatican, perhaps the world’s richest corporation, spends untold amount of money for conversion agendas.
Notice too the missionary activities during the Aceh disaster. Humanitarian objectives were not the primary reason for them helping. Setting up chapels and churches, guised under “help centers”, malay bibles were also distributed along with blankets and potatoes, albeit knowing the fact that the acehnese had always been strong adherents to Islam so much so that the area has been nicknamed Veranda of Mecca (Serambi Mekah). Converting malays has been an inherent crusade that the christians regard with testosteronal overdrive, almost to the point of vengeance, seeing how the hundreds of years of efforts by Spanish expansionists and European colonists fail to win even a miniscule number of malays to start believing in Three Gods, Original sin and Redemption by death that the locals find so nonsensical and abhorrent about.
Conversion efforts amongst people of lowly educated population or those who are of relatively less advanced culture, like the dayaks, senois, the deep Sarawakian and Sabahan natives, etc are relatively painless. It is easier for the missionaries with condescending personalities, with an air and picture of the advanced-but-kind-hearted Mat Sallehs, to convert these natives because they do not have to debate out with them on zany dogmas like Original Sin, Divinity of Man, Trio of Godhood, Redemption of Humanity’s sin by dying on the Cross and other preposterous concepts which form the main qualms of those very western intellectuals abandoning Christianity in the first place. This ease, coupled with wads of cash, make regions like Africa, South East Asia, South America be fertile conversion grounds for almost all types of Christian denominations. (That itself is quizzical: do not be surprised if you go to any orang asli place and you find more than one type of church and the inhabitants themselves start to be divided on which church they go to: how can they if the RSV version of the bible in one senoi camp are not accepted as the word of God by another senoi camp using the King James edition!)
Preachers, having almost given up in trying to preach and defend the concepts I mentioned above to western christians who suddenly find themselves freed from the constraints of dogma and need to have more sensible explanations about them, therefore turn to the relatively easier and less-sophisticated natives to hone their missionary skills.
The case with the Chinese in Malaysia is a bit different: This target group, who are far from poor and therefore do not need any financial motives, conversion tactics are done using bootstrap principles: namely that of dissent towards anything Malay. To the chinese, anything that sounds malay-ish and associated to them is hateful. This has been a main weapon of the missionaries. Thus they would readily welcome any faiths which to them is reminiscent of and symptomatic to the idea of inherent rebellion. Christianity is an outlet for them to show dissent.
Even so, many among the Chinese would find the teachings and dogmas of this new faith to be quite irrational and absurd, but to them, being subservient to and agreeing with the malays would be much more unacceptable, and therefore changing faiths suddenly become an attractive lure. The Chinese is one people whose “fear of losing out or being left out” (commonly termed as Kiasu) dictates their every move, every trait of behavior. Do not be surprised to find three or more different faiths residing in some Chinese individual: Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism etc … to ascertain that “if this one does not hit the mark, then this other one will” --- as if to obtain a quadruple insurance that their well being in the hereafter will more likely be guaranteed by bringing as many possible permutations of truths as possible. Now I surely applaud this fail-safe method of celestial trial-and-error, but would like to suggest them to expand the coverage a bit more, cos they really do not hit the mark as yet with those lists.
The Malaysian Indians, however, have a nobler purpose for conversion. After being in the social quagmire of the caste system for so long, conversion allows some Indians to taste being a notch up in society’s rung of acceptance ladder. In the Abrahamic faiths, one do not need to distinguish one human being from another based on the nature of their births in society. If I were an Indian born in a low caste family, I surely would be inspired by my fellow indians like Father Lawrence Andrew and how high a standing and fully respected he is in society. My twice-tanned skin would turn white with envy! And the name, Look at the name! With this kind of name now instead of some Puthucheary or Tanabalan, tell me if I am not in the same league as Norah Jones, Charles Xavier or James Cameron.
Which brings me to this: that cultural and racial glorification could be another factor. (Racial glorification is the inverse of racism: always getting awed at those races you regard superior than yours) . Christianity is associated with pictures of Richard Branson, of Bill Gates, of Angelina Jolie. Oh never mind none of these believe in Christianity, but at least they are now in the same name pool, anyway, much like Rudolf does. That is, “Richard Hong” is much more cooler than, say, “Abdullah Wong” anytime. This is, of course, a peculiarity only of south east asian chinese. The mainland inhabitants have about 40 million Christians and they do not suffer from this predicament. That is, they do not have Peters or Michaels or Janettes attached to their names to affirm that they are christians. By contrasts, the Jets and Hackens and Brackens and Kersons might have appellations more adornful than the western christians themselves by faithwise it doubtful that they are equally so (In contrast, there are 20 million mainland chinese muslims, much more than the malays themselves ).
Thus it can safely be said that conversion to Islam for the western people are motivated by their intellectual desire to find meaning and answers to an otherwise perplexing set of dogmas that they had been taught since early childhood, while conversion to Christianity are almost always driven by economics, the need to be dissentful, as well as the need to be associated with anything western.
But will conversion efforts be successful purely on the grounds of dogma change among the malays? Not as it stands. In order to attract malay youths, some “proselytizers” introduce a very unlikely carrot: the kinds of western lifestyles a potential renegade muslim can be accorded once the shackles of Islamic constraints are unbounded. Conundrically, these lifestyles are anti-thestical to the kind ministry that Jesus Christ represented: freewheeling booze, free sex, homosexuality and hedonism in general. But their contention is this: isn’t Jesus all about Love, Love, Love? Why should you constraint your life to a set of rules and regulations and religious restrictions that Islam promotes? What is the meaning of living life to the fullest if you cant do that, cant drink this, cant eat that, can’t sleep things out?
Booze: well see now there is no prohibition in christianity at all? And the sexual revolution: this has succesfully replaced the norm of the sanctity of marriage and the preservation of family life in western christian countries so don’t you want to move a notch ahead in terms of progress and modernism? And homosexuality: yes I know that the bible condemns it but it’s all interpretations, you see. And see how we have even wedded same sex couples in many christian countries and even downplay the roles that priests play in the abuse and sodomization of boys under their care? And all this from a religion that preaches those exact iniquities to be abominations by all God’s messengers from Adam to moses to Jesus to Muhammad.
Folks. Islam is the last bastion of the purity of God’s teachings as laid down by the Torah, Bible and Qur’an. It now stands alone and unaided in disallowing the tamperings of the original scriptures that seek to replace God’s true teachings with ever-changing priestly ones.
And because of this purity, the efforts to discredit Islam, to sway its adherents away from its straight path (pun intended) and INTO other religions including Christianity, cannot be blamed on the Christian Priests with KPI pressures alone.
The blame lies beyond, on a much more sinister, diabolical, Luciferan origin. The dirtying of the name Allah by associating blasphemies is only one of the means, albeit a first step …
Apocryphalist
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A few post back I touch a wee bit about Collective Consciousness.........here's the thing about Collective Consciousness.......it defines what is acceptable and what is not in a society.....if killing a person or raping a child is considered acceptable and does not offend the collective consciousness of the society..then it is not a crime to do so.....in that particular society...and the law which governs us is also based on the Collective Consciousness Value System.......
To me...the actions of the Catholic Church and the corresponding High Court judgment on 31st Dec 2009 will test the Collective Consciousness of the Malay Muslim Majority of the Malaysian Population .........at what price will it be?In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Say: He is Allah, the One and Only;
Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
He begets not, nor was He begotten;
And there is none like unto Him
Al-Ikhlas 112
To my fellow brothers and sisters......Join us as "Bloggers Against Blasphemies" takes its first baby steps into the cyberspace....feel free to use the logo below as a sign of support to the cause...........
satD
The Uranus Monkey
source : Pure ShiiteAllah, the Bible, Christians and Muslims.
I am happy that today in Malaysia, Christians and Muslims can share the word Allah. But ...
Sigh ......
It is sad, unfortunate and bad for UNITY that we had to go through the courts to get a go-ahead to use the term “Allah” in the Bible. This is because the real issue is not about language or semantics, it is about TRUST.
Because we Christians and Muslims cannot be truthful to ourselves and each other and hide what is in our hearts, we pretend to debate and argue using the legal framework instead of using our religiosity and good hearts to come to a working relationship – and we call ourselves the followers of Christ, followers of Muhammad?
We fail to frame important questions like “How would Jesus deal with this issue?” or ‘What would Muhammad do in a similar situation?”
The verdict be it “for or against” is a lose-lose situation.
Today, a segment ( I think it’s a large one) of Muslims will see this as “ The Christians has won!” and will likely take prejudiced and narrow-minded counter actions ( Even Rockybru an open minded Muslim is not happy – rockybru). The Christians on the other hand will perceive the verdict as the triumph of truth over evil. But in actual fact it is a triumph of insecurity over trust in God, ourselves and fellow mankind.Christians must know better. This is just a triumph in a legal sense, but is it a moral one? Do you remember the trial that Jesus had to go thru before his cruxifixion? Who was trying to use a legal avenue? Christ or his enemies?
As a morally oriented religion, Christians must seek a moral victory and winning of the hearts. Did the Christians win the hearts of the Muslims with this verdict? Are the Muslims feeling closer to the Christians because today we can share the word Allah?
I have written an extensive article on the subject showing that the Quran is okay with using the tern Allah in the Bible. Why then is a segment of Muslims dead against it? Below is the conclusion, it may shed some light. To read the entire article, click here.
I call likeminded Muslims and Christians who know in their hearts what the real issues are, come forward and make good the situation – and provide a platform of TRUST – a win-win solution. Share what is said behind each other's back, things our own people and leaders do or say behind closed doors.
We need whistle blowers on both sides.
Come forward and tell the truth about our own fellow faithful's mistakes, wrong deeds and intentions. We are interested in Truth. If any Muslims say an untruth -not in line with the Quran or something that is not good for all, Muslims must come forward and whistleblow. Similarly within Christianity (and Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.).
So we can learn to deal with such issues in more Christlike manner, more like Muhammad and be better Christians, be better Muslims and be a true child of God.
The Conclusion
It is clear that it is not just permissible to use the term Allah to refer to God in the Bible, it is exactly what the Quran wants us to do. Is it not an irony?
I would like to thank my Christian brothers and sisters in their effort to make Allah the universal name of God and wanting the name to be the preferred reference to God in the Bible.But, you must not stop there.You must also strive hard to ensure that not just the Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia Bibles use the term Allah but all the other translations in the world regardless if they are in Japanese, English, Russian or Hindi uses the same term.
Malaysian Christians can lead the world of Christianity to make Allah the universal name for God with the solid support of their Muslim brothers and sisters. Anything that can bring us closer together must be supported. A shared universal name to call our God Allah seems most appropriate beginning.Failing to do so will create mistrust because the correct term for God in Malay is Tuhan.The Muslims will question your consistency and sincerity.
Because the real issue here is Trust. Not the technicality of the term Allah, Tuhan, Elohim, Elah etc.
This is where we need to focus.There are three levels of trust missing.
Firstly we do not trust each other. The Muslims perceive the inconsistency of Christians wanting to use the term Allah in the Malay bible and not the other translations as a plot to convert Malay Muslims to Christianity. And, the Christians perceive the Muslims rejection to the usage of the term as another strategy to block the spread of the Christian faith to Muslims in Malaysia. This feeling is deep in the Christians' psyche as they find it as unfair the lopsided law on conversion in Malaysia (Check what the Quran say about this at 83:1-3 and 5:8).
Secondly, we do not trust ourselves. The Muslims lack confidence of fellow Muslims and feel that by just using the term Allah, their faith towards Islam can be shaken. The Christians lack confidence that being Christ like is enough to attract others to the faith.
Yet the deepest rot is the lack of trust in Allah or God or Tuhan or any other names you want to call upon Him! Both Muslims and Christians fail to trust that Allah will be with those who are true and love those who trust Him. If we do so, we have nothing to fear and nothing to grieve. Failing to trust Him, we become weak, insecure and misguided.
"There are many Lamps, only one Light" Rumi
Anas Zubedy
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