Dear Allah Part 2: A Lookback into the Allah Ciplak Saga and SatD's 5 Point Solution

Dear Allah SWT.

It's been awhile since I last wrote to you publicly. I seldom do it, for reasons only known to you and me.... Just like the Indonesia Bajai orang bilang mau ke kiri atau ke kanan itu antara dia sama Tuhan aja yang tahu.

I know that you know everything.....but for the manusia yang mudah lupa dan malas baca I shall reproduce it again....

Dear Allah Subhanawataala
My name is satD (but you know the real person before I was even born), I am one of your hamba living in a country called Malaysia created by a bunch of people back in 1957. This country has Islam as its official religion and guarantees religious freedom to others through its constitution. This country also specifically has a provision that protects Muslims against the propagation of other religion (alhamdullilah to our founding fathers for insisting that into our constitution). The actual enforcement of such provision is to be gazetted into the individual state constitution as the individual states Jabatan Agama Islam will be the agent to ensure that the provision under the Federal Constitution are adhered to.

I am saddened with the current on-goings on the need of using your name in the religious documents of other faith. It seems that the overall discussion have been specifically focused on the use of your name in Bahasa Malaysia which is our national language. Promoters of the idea have been focusing on the fact that your name have been used since 1800's. They insist on the use specifically for their Bahasa Malaysia documents ONLY and not in our Second Language which is English.

In the past few weeks, the cyberspace have been debating this issue from the linguistic perspective of using your name but I have always wondered on a few things that I think only you would know.

1. If Islam came to our shores prior to Christianity, would the locals of our land then would have been addressing you the Supreme Being by Allah Subhanahuwataala
2. Could the person who was tasked to propagate the other religion; specifically Christianity would have arrived circa 1600's after the rise of Melaka probably have brought with him a Bible NOT in the Native Language of the locals of our land.
3. In order to propagate his religion, he/she would need to translate the bible into the Native Language for ease of dissemination.
4. Could the process of translation involves the preacher going around asking the locals who and what do you call your god? and given the fact that the majority of the people being muslims would have answered the one and only Allah Subhanahuwataala
5. Knowing this fact the preacher then conveniently substituted the word God (in his original document) with your name even though every other Bible in the world does not use your name except for those who share the same root language with arabic, so that he could easily achieve his task and also make future efforts of propagating Christianity to the locals a breeze this is in consideration of the fact that God is Tuhan in our language

I have written about this before to inquire of the need to use your name and one soul came to provide a counter argument by asking me to speculate on the number of Malays converts.....does it matter if the number is 100,000 or just 1 person....if the Federal and State Constitution already has provision to protect the Malay Muslims from any form of elements that may lead to conversions........

What if for the sake of settling this issue once and for all, the Malaysian Government ALLOW the production, use and distribution of Bahasa Malaysia Bibles WITHOUT the use of ALLAH as a term of reference to God......Plus this is the time of the INTERNET ANYONE CAN DOWNLOAD AN ONLINE COPY OF THE MALAY BIBLE into their home without the religious authority knowing. Regulations and Enforcement must keep up with the evolution of technology, if regulation are enacted but is too costly to implement or impossible to monitor then the intended objective is not achieved.

Ya Allah Give us Guidance..........I am not someone who is against other religion nor want to stir up negative debates on this particular matter, I am for all Malaysian to live in harmony with one another and have written about this matter before to raise the awareness

Ya Allah Guide Us, Our Leaders and Policy makers to Make the Right Well Informed Choice for the Stability of Our Nation (SatD's Feb 27, 2009 here)

Well....that was 2009, after that I wrote a whole bunch of posts trying to answer those 5 questions....

Not long after Law Bee Lan, the sitting judge for Judicial Review ventured out of her scope to evaluate the Power of the Minister according to the existing laws....It was a rather funny decision, any final year law student can tell you how a Judicial Review should be evaluated...this particular Judge went off the charts...

I wonder why?

Was it the recently acquired Christian Conscience in her? From being a Godless Chinese to discovering Jesus in her University days.....I guess her belief overrides the fact of law....

Anyway folks just a summary of what I've written as a FAQ for anyone wanting to venture into the Allah Ciplak debate....

Allah is a Proper Name for God go here

Allah the Arabic Loan Word in Malay that has a specific religious connotation assigned to it creating a definable conceptual boundaries which requires proper understanding of its socio-historical origins and their semantic-cognitive properties to the Malay Muslims of Malaysia. go here

The need to use "Allah" in Bible Translation as a means for Contextualising the Bible to the Muslim Targets go here

The Allah in Marshden Raffels Malay Dictionary used by Munshi Abdullah go here

The context of usage of the term Allah By Pre Christian Borneo Population go here

The Arabic Bible usage of Al-IIlah instead of Allah go here

The Religious Freedom concept which the Malaya Christian Council tried to embedded into our Malaysian Constitution during Reid Commission =  Free Conversion and Propagation of Christianity to the Malays go here

Apart from the above I also asked a simple question If Allah is so integral to Christian Faith then why is Tuhan Yesus Kristus being used instead of Isa Al Masih. Was Isa too Islamic? (here) And why in the world it was OK to tukar2 nama Anak Tuhan Allah Ciplak? Sampai sekarang belum ada jawapan

 Funny don't you think?

Anyway the objective of this post is to highlight an observation last seen in Flirting with Disaster (here)

Remember this?

In that post I asked

Which Quadrant in the Religious Restriction Vs Social Hostilities do you want our Country to Migrate to?

Well folks the latest data is out.....

Jeng jeng jeng......

Full Report from PEW (here)

 CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!! Great Job folks.....

We moved up two quadrant from Low to High in the Social Hostilities Index....

I'm not that sure whether our Social Hostilities are that high to be considered under that quadrant and I don't think I wanna waste any time to go deeper into it....

In that post I expended my thoughts in the comment section ....

First to look at this issue we must first distinguish Social Restriction employed by Private Agents (Society etc) and Government Restriction employed by Government Agent. 

The root of our issue is "Restricted Competition" i.e. the barriers that can be enacted against the Malays to other Religion. By design even without Government Restriction the Social Restriction is much higher (refer to Lina Joy's case and other Malay converts cases...or take the Ayah Pin or Ahmadiah for instance). 

What we must also be looking at is whether these Social restrictions arise out of pre-existing social prejudice against a specific religion or community or is a direct effect of Government Restrictions. 

Now imagine the Malay Muslims who is in the opinion that Conversion is not allowed (which kinda form the big majority in Malaysia), this is further reinforced by the Restrictions arising from 11.4 of our constitution enforced by the Government. 

Restrictions enforced by the Social Agents are far more effective than any restrictions enforced by the Government, this is where the potential risk arise. Take the demand for Shariah Law in other Jurisdiction, these demands are a direct outcome of pressures by social actors, or the Anti Conversion laws being enacted India or even the expulsion of Christians missionaries is various jurisdiction globally. 

How do you think the largest group in Malaysia would react if they feel that the protector of their Religion is no longer functioning as how it should be? 

Will they be enforcing self-imposed “Social Restrictions”? 

And if they do how will the Government react to it? Invoke state of emergency? 

Well folks talking about this Social Restrictions enforced by Private Agents...take a look at this as a sample of what it is

A growing number of Muslims are speaking out about losing their faith, but it can mean being shunned by their families, or even threatened with death.(here)

Don't go far let me ask all these Malay Muslim if they are cool if their parents ke anak ke adik beradik ke convert masuk Christian? (Check out my old 2008 post on the matter here)

Apamacam ada brani? Maybe Nurul Izzah can lead the way

Lets just say now that there is a significant number of Malay Converts....

What would this be considered as then?

Following the hidden rule of the statutory interpretation of Art.3.is the protection of Islam as the religion of the State and the YDPA as the Supreme Head of the religion of Islam is well protected against any aggression, subversion or propagation against him, his government, his agent, his Muslim subject, his heir and his state by instigating any Anti Islamic activities.

Thus, could it be that if such a new situation arise Penal Code s.121 could be used because any aggression instigation against His Majesty's official religion of the state is an act of aggression against his Majestic and thus it is wagging a war against the YDPA as defined in s.121 of the Penal Code (Act 574). (Go here Act of War against YDPA: Forward Looking Analysis on Christian Malays)

 Sekarang gua sudah malas mau cita panjang lebar.....

YDPA bagi titah pun diaorang sudah buat tak pot...

Bukan Islam tidak perlu patuh kepada titah Diraja atau fatwa, kata peguam (here)

Clap Clap Clap.....

Well done....

In 2011 I challenged all the PR lead states (here)

Let me ask you a simple question...

The Restrictions on the Usage of Allah and other "Islamic" words are enforced via the State Enactments rite?

State law and in respect of the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan, federal law may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam 

Refer Article 11.4 of our Federal Constitution

Ask yourself how long have PAS ruled Kelantan with considerable Majority

Why didn't they change the State Law if they really support the Usage of Allah?

What about Pakatan ruled Selangor and Kedah?

 If you really support its usage

I DARE YOU TO CHANGE THE STATE LAW

THIS IS 2014.......dah 3 tahun beb....

It was only after the JAIS raid that the Non Muslim ADUNs of Selangor rasa panas punggung.....hantar la macai 3 orang...

Baru nak bukak mulut dah kena cover line......

Persoalan: Mengapa wakil DAP banyak yang jongang?

Apa hasil?

Tapi takpe Hantu Raya Perut Buncit sudah bersuara....

Today, the Permatang Pauh MP also expressed concern that the “Allah” row was being fanned to unhealthy levels that could threaten peace in the country. He accused Umno of creating a siege mentality amongst Muslims by instilling in them the fear that the sanctity of their religion was being threatened in the “Allah” row. The PKR adviser reiterated Pakatan Rakyat’s stand since 2010 that the word “Allah” may be used by non-Muslims as long as it is not abused. (here)

Ok then go ahead please.......let me see what you got planned....

You are the Government in a few states rite.....show us your unity in support of Allah Ciplak...

Mana tau Allah Ciplak may grant you another 5 years to rule ka.....or maybe kasi lu Putrajaya ke..

Hellalujah!!!

You think this Allah row is ever gonna end? Kalau kes Herald ni settle pun ada sebijik time bomb lagi mau datang.....the Jill Ireland Sidang Injil Borneo pentecostal evangelical pasar malam magic kes CD kena pau dengan KDN (here)

Tak caya tanye Idris Jala dia satu jemaah dengan minah tu....mesti sudah kau tim mau kasi how many point punya solution pulak brader?

Malas mau cita la beb.....

Gua sudah malas tahap gaban nak tulis pasal Allah Ciplak ni punya cerita....giler boring doe....

Let me state my position terang2 on this matter...

Dari dulu gua TIDAK SOKONG penggunaan Allah di dalam AL-Kitab..well even the Arabs agree too..

We need to address a topic that is sure to come up when using ArabBible. The textual foundation forArabBible is the venerable Van Dyck translation, completed in Lebanon in March of 1860. You are probably aware that the term used for “God” in the Van Dyck version is “Allah”. However, ArabBibledoes not use this word at all. Instead, the word “al-ilaah” has been employed (note: no other changes have been made to the Van Dyck text). Why the change? (here)  

I even advocated Government support for the actual translation from Original Text into Bahasa....instead of the current perverted version....eh jangan marah tau....saya quote an expert on the subject

The Sharp Two Edged Sword for Indonesia : History of Bible Translations (here)

Anyway......kesian kan.....the MOST CORRUPT and PERVERTED TRANSLATIONS EVER MADE IN ANY LANGUAGE sampai tak bole nak provide a spiritual foundation tu beb.....

Giler auk....

Anyway gua pun mau kasi gua punya beberapa point Solution.

1. Government of Malaysia shall provide support for the translation from Original Text that will provide proper spiritual foundation considering the fact that there are so many lost in translation version sampai nama Tuhan pun nak kena pinjam Proper Name Tuhan Islam...lu punya Tuhan takde nama ke? Dah la sebut pun pelat....kalu drop the silent L camne bole kautim..takkan sesat pun iman lu kan ( go here for the issue of enforcement n proposed solution).. Note: Ni pun gua kasi chance pasal kalau ikut Perlembagaan lain ugama CANNOT RECEIVE ANY FUNDING tak caya pergi baca sini 
2. Proper usage and access monitoring shall be conducted, whereby all access to Christian Publication shall be monitored (eg: Who accessed the Online Bible, Who downloaded the Bible App, Number of Congregation in each area Vs the Number of Malay Bibles in circulation...one should ask why must there be 10K Bibles for a particular area when there's only 1K Christians dan lain2 lagi yang technologically possible with lowest cost of enforcement and monitoring)
3. Active Surveillance of All Access points to Shop Lot Churches via CCTV...apa mau takut kalu takde Melayu masuk lu punya church rite....
4. All Online advertising in Sites targeted for Malaysian Consumption that have benda2 merepek like "Have You Found Your Saviour"... "Jesus is Lord" bla bla bla kat dia punya side bar ke top banner ke musti dapat APPROVAL kalu susah sangat kena ada LARGE Disclaimer that this is For the Consumption of a Non Muslim
5. Active monitoring of C4-C5-C6 activities....in case u forgot what they are 
   

Sebagai contoh seorang operator di section C4

Enakmen Ugama Bukan Islam 1988 menyatakan bhw org x Islam tak boleh menggunakan Insya-Allah dlm perbahasaan, saya dah banyak kali langar ni.
— Ong Kian Ming (@imokman) January 2, 2014

You see these group of people plays a rather tricky game....blogger Helen Ang (here) been following their activities for a few years....terimakasih daun keladi....but girl u need a trip to the hairdresser..giler serabai ;)

What exactly can we do if a bunch of Christians start to berwuduk.....pastu Puasa...lu nak marah dia??

Tricky rite.....

Mamat tu siap berpuasa beb...

Serdang MP Dr Ong Kian Ming said that it was not his first time fasting as he had tried it two years ago.
“In the earlier part of trying to fast, I tried to eat only lunch, and later, I slowly reduced everything and only drank water,” he said.
For Ong, the hardest part lies in explaining to his non-Muslim friends the reason he fasted.
“The reason behind it is to experience how my Malay friends feel during this period.
“Some of my friends had asked me whether I had converted to Islam.” (here)

We should all ask him if the Islamic Terms and practises became part of his routine after he started flirting with the DAP?

Don't go far folks just look at his tweets prior to DAP cuba cari ada Insyallah ke tidak....

This will be the game going forward......

We either box them up into a rather tight space to operate or we let them loose and watch Social Enforcement takes its course....

Your choice......not mine.

UPDATE 3:50am:

If we could migrate2 level up on Social Hostilities what makes u think less control will reduce it?

We need to tame the collective consciousness of Malay Muslims by advocating greater control and monitoring capabilities. We also need to delicately handle children affected by their parents conversion.

So many things to say....sometimes I feel like a broken record when it comes to this Allah Ciplak issue...bertahun siout duk layan.....

Lu larat?

Boleh lu cari benda2 yang gua jumpa? Gua kasi lu link pun belum tentu lu larat nak baca...

Anyway...gua malas nak merepek nanti orang cakap poyo lebeh pulak...

Tapi pehal la mamat2 yg pergi duk demo n contribute to this migration to greater social hostilities quadrant gi pakai banners message semua macam sial....kalau lu orang dah baca apekebenda gua duk tulis kat sini dah bertahun...ada la persoalan yang lebih masuk akal lu taruk kat banner..kalu orang ambik gambor pun tak la nampak bangang...pastu heboh satu dunia...gambar lu giler auk buat malu Malaysia...lu bangga?

For a summary of postings related to Allah Ciplak compiled by Bro Kenn (here)