The King of Malaysia has expressed concern that the current debates about the use of the word “Allah” could affect national unity if not resolved immediately.
Al-Sultan Abdullah, in a speech on June 5 a day before his birthday celebration reminded people not to make religious issues a source of controversy and political disputes.
“I wish to remind that any polemic related to the religion may end up igniting the flame of hostility among races if not addressed immediately,” the King said.
“The polemic on the use of the word ‘Allah’ is not a debate about terminology or linguistics. […] It relates to the faith of the Muslims and any confusion will invite calamity,” the King added, according to The Star, an English-speaking Malaysian news publication.
His statement follows the debate about the use of the word “Allah” for non-Muslims, and a landmark High Court ruling allowing non-Muslims to use the word in the context of their religions.
In Malaysia, the Federal Constitution states that Islam is the official religion of the Federation, comprising thirteen states and three federal territories. The constitution also says other religions may be practiced peacefully and harmoniously in any part of the Federation.
CDs using the word “Allah” in a Christian context seized in 2008
In 1986, a Home Ministry directive prohibited the use of the the words “Allah”, “Baitullah” (House of God), “Kaabah” (Islam’s holiest site) and “Solat” (the daily ritual prayer) by non-Muslims. At that time, the government justified the decision to avoid confusion among the Muslim and Christian communities and to preserve public order.
But in 2021, in a controversial case that started fifteen years ago, the High Court of Kuala Lumpur ruled that non-Muslims could use these words. The Court only considered legislation and refrained from discussing theological issues.
In 2008, Jill Ireland, a Christian from an indigenous tribe of Sarawak, the only state in Malaysia with a Christian majority, saw customs officers at the Kuala Lumpur airport seize eight Christian educational CDs brought from neighboring Indonesia — Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia are very similar languages — because they used the words “Allah” in a Christian context.
But Ms. Ireland fought in Court that her constitutional rights were violated.
The Christian community of Sabah and Sarawak, two states located on Borneo island, have been using the word “Allah” for the word God for generations in the practice of their religion. The first historical evidence dates back to 1629.
The High Court ordered the Home Ministry to return the CDs in 2014.
And in 2021, Judge Nor Bee Binti Ariffin concluded the cabinet, according to the way the prohibition was written, didn’t impose a total ban on the four words. Moreover, using the words hasn’t caused problems leading to public disorder, according to the Court ruling.
She also added that banning these words in Christian publications is “so outrageous in its defiance of logic that no sensible person could have arrived at the decision” the Minister in office at the time of confiscating the CDs had made.
Two days after the decision that upheld Ms. Ireland’s constitutional right to practice her religion, the government of Malaysia filed an appeal which was supposed to be heard last May.
Clarifying the rules to use the word “Allah”
But the Home Ministry announced it withdrew its challenge to the decision.
While the decision most probably marked the end of a 15-year-old judiciary saga, critics of the government argued it compromised the position of Islam.
Opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin said he felt “shocked and disappointed” at the government’s decision to withdraw the appeal without going until the end of the judicial process. When the right-coalition government filed the appeal, Mr. Hamzah was the home minister in 2021.
He pointed out that the Fatwa Committee of the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs (MKI) decided in 2018 that “Allah” was a sacred word it couldn’t be used with other religions.
In the country’s highest jurisdiction ruling, the judge emphasized that the states of Sarawak and Sabah were guaranteed freedom of religion before they joined Malaya to form Malaysia in 1963.
Al-Sultan Abdullah said that all parties should take a wise and orderly approach and be imbued with a high spirit of tolerance when dealing with this sensitive issue.
For the King, the government must harmonize the current situation and ensure the correct context of the word “Allah”, considering national security and the well-being of the Muslim community while at the same time “other religions can still be practiced in peace and harmony.”
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said his cabinet would propose some changes to remove loopholes so that it becomes clear “Allah” cannot be used by non-Muslims in the peninsula and it will be allowed with certain conditions in Sabah and Sarawak.
