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This Allah debacle is getting out of hand.

We now have an entire alliance of bloggers, calling themselves Bloggers against blasphemy. People who supposedly uphold the sanctity of Islam by dividing Christians and Muslims.

I will point out how to respond to this ignorance, but also ask the question of who insults the name of Allah, the Catholics who worship him or the Muslims who draw cartoons around this name?

Here’s how we should respond to this level of Ignorance. Here are the main points these people offer and what you should reply.

1) Why the sudden urge to use “Allah”, it will only create mis-trust.
The East Malaysians have been using Allah for centuries, and even Mahathir has admitted that Christians in East Malaysia have been using Allah since before the inception of Malaysia. The question is  why the Government has had a sudden urge in preventing us from using it. The government is the one creating mis-trust.

2) It doesn’t matter if the Arab world use it, you have to look at the context.
Once again, the context is Malaysia, which includes Sabah and Sarawak and the history of Christianity in Sabah and Sarawak that traditionally used Allah to call on God. The context is Malaysia as a whole, not just peninsular Malaysia, not just Sabah and Sarawak. The people in Sabah and Sarawak and Christians and speak Malay, I know it’s hard for UMNO to understand this but there are people in Sabah and Sarawak that can only converse in Malay AND are Christians.

It is their myopia in defining Malaysia as what they see in only Peninsular Malaysia that blinds them from the truth.

3) Allah is the God of the Muslims.
Fair enough, but I worship the God the Abraham. The God of Isaac and Ishmael, the God of Hagar.

I worship the God that appeared to Moses as the burning bush. The God of the Archangel Gabriel who visited Mary at the Annunciation. Who do Muslims worship, isn’t it one and the same?

4) The Catholic understanding of Allah is different from the Muslims.
Fair enough, I believe in the Trinity.

Do Muslims believe in Jesus as the Son of God, who came down from Heaven to redeem my sins? Do they believe he rose from the dead?

Would it be right for me to prevent Muslims from referring to Nabi Isa (pbuh), would it be right for Christians to ask Muslims to remove Nabi Isa from any sacred literature as it would confuse the Christians? No.

The correct thing to do is for Christians to educate Christians about the similarities (and differences) between Christianity and Islam, and to embrace the commonalities. Not drive wedges and divide. Just because your understanding is different doesn’t mean I can deny you usage of the word Jesus (or Isa). More importantly, Christians do not own Jesus, he is for everyone. I would be ashamed of Christians seeking to remove Jesus from Islamic text.

5) Catholics will use this to convert the Muslims.
Confident Muslims are not easily confused. Muslims will not enter a church and think it is a Mosque simply because we use the word Allah.

If a Muslims child ask why do the Christians worship Allah as well, isn’t it a fantastic opportunity for a parent to explain to the child their own faith. It is not a threat to Islam , the usage of Allah is an opportunity for dialogue and understanding.

Why is the topic of conversion such a hot-topic these days. Sure it’s illegal, but are Muslims so insecure in their own faith that they are afraid of people converting them? Surely Muslims in this country that take Pendidikan Islam as a subject all the way to Form 5 are more secure in their beliefs and faith than that…. and if they aren’t, is that the fault of the Christians or the religious authorities?

I can only pity
I can only pity the self-proclaimed moderate Muslims of Demi Negara, Rocky, Lowyar Kampung, Jebat must die and the bloggers against blasphemy. I can only pity them for their blindness and ignorance, for in their ignorance they sow the seeds of hatred among Muslims and Christians, in their blindness and ignorance they fail to see commonalities choosing instead to focus on the uncommon.

Christianity and Islam have much more in common than one might think. If we compare:

Similarities
1) We both worship a one ever loving and all powerful God.
2) We both believe in the Virgin birth of Jesus (even some Christian denominations do not believe this)
3) We both believe that Marys Son Jesus Ascended into Heaven. (the same Jesus from the Virgin birth)
4) We both believe Moses talked to God at the burning bush (and we both believe the first thing God did was ask him to take of his shoes)
5) We both believe in that Jonah(Yunus) was swallowed by a fish, that John (Yahya) was sent by God to proclaim the coming of Jesus, that David (and his son Solomon) were Kings of Israel and we believe and that there was a great flood in the land of which God saved the righteous Noah(Nuh) by commanding him to build an Ark.

Some Christians churches have chosen to distant themselves from the Virgin Birth, choosing instead to explain the birth of Jesus through Marys rape at the hands of a Roman Soldier. This means that  it’s possible that Catholics share more in common with Muslims that with people who consider themselves Christians.

Yet no one talks of this. None of these bloggers against Blasphemy would speak of the commons between us, instead they seek to divide us by focusing on aspects that are different, and prevent fruitful and meaningful conversations between Christians and Muslims.

The similarities do not just end there, we share many other beliefs in common:

MORE Similarities
1) We believe in a Heaven and a Hell (it’s not as common a belief as you might think)
2) We believe that homosexuality is a sin (many churches do not subscribe to this)

Not just beliefs, but the manner in which we pray:

3) We both have calls to prayer (the Azan and Church Bells) , which annoy and awake others but sound like music to our ears
4) We both have months of fast (Ramadhan and Lent), although I’ve been slacking on Lent these past few years.
5) We both have one day dedicated for prayer as a community (Friday and Sunday), the Jewish people pray on a Saturday (which works out pretty well)

So therefore, when I hear the Azan near my house, at an hour I have barely awoken it annoys me a little. But I take comfort (and PRIDE) in the fact that my Muslim brother is calling out and worshiping the same God I worship, the same God of Abraham. We may differ on many things, but we both believe that there is but one God. And if we both worship one true God then logically we must be worshiping the same God.

If you were to ask me who create the Heavens and the Earth, I would have no qualms proudly proclaiming it was Allah that did so. My brothers and sisters in East Malaysia would say it so instinctively.

I pity the Muslims that feel differently, I pray they may come to accept these things. They are being stirred up by rash, irrational and power hungry politicians who themselves have hired rash, irrational and hate-spewing bloggers push their agenda of division.

Consider this article from Demi Negara, or this one from Small talks. Rocky claims that these are the views of the ‘moderate’ Muslim. They only thing moderate about these guys is their blogs. They are nothing more than hate-spewing divisive articles that forget that Malaysia is a country that INCLUDES Sabah and Sarawak. People who have a right to call their God the same name they’ve been calling him for Centuries.

To insist that Sabahans and Sarawakians change the way they refer to God is similar to insisting that Muslims in other countries refrain from using Allah, or that Muslims should not refer to Jesus unless they refer to him as the Son of God.

The biggest blockers to meaningful dialogue are these guys. They love to divide, they love to play the victim when in fact they oppress ….and continue to oppress. How can we take any of them seriously, when they release articles like this. Who thinks he insults me when he say may Allah bless Augustine Paul? I’m not sure if he’s stupid or just plain ignorant, but let me make it clear. I will have no problems at my funeral for people to say “May Allah bless his soul” or anything to that effect.

Why is it I can’t use Allah to call on God, but these guys can use the word in comedy and satire? Who is insulting the name of Allah now?

This comic taken from this link. It’s the same blogger that’s starting the Bloggers against Blasphemy group. As a Christian I can’t use Allah simply because of my religion, but a Muslim can draw up a comic mocking the the word and get away scot-free?

That’s my 2 cents. Don’t spend it all in one place.

May Allah bless Malaysia.