The Stupidity Of Muslims In The Allah Issue

The words and actions of those in power and their unquestioning supporters indicate that they are trying to drive home the point that MIGHT is right. That is why they demand that the minority must bow to the ‘sensitivities’ of the majority. But those sensitivities are self-induced, as no one is ever born with such sensitivities.Sensitivities are one’s own choice.

For example, the Malay children in the mission schools of the 1950s and 60s could sit on the same table and eat their halal food while their non-Muslim friends ate their non-halal food which included pork. Each respected the other. There were no demands that school canteens should stop selling non-halal and pork containing dishes. Was the Malaysian Islam of those days not the same as the Malaysian Islam of these days?

DAP falls for Umno's 'Allah' trap

COMMENT The ‘Allah’ issue has been a classic, extremely effective Umno trap. When this issue reaches headlines, everybody loses, and nobody wins, except for Umno.

I’ve written about why this is so many times. To summarise quickly: this issue always polarises. ‘Polarisation’ here means that Malaysians who believe their religion is under siege (this applies to both sides) become increasingly convinced that they are correct.

They then behave as anyone who feels their religion is under siege can be expected to.

For ultra conservative or rigid Muslims, this means turning to Umno. They cannot fully turn to PAS, which is ironically more religious, because it has stated that it is all right for non-Muslims to use ‘Allah’ (in a way, they also are victim of a trap - but perhaps in a good way).

Many non-Muslims meanwhile, start to feel more and more like they are being oppressed by the majority. Some give up hope on Malaysia, and start looking for the exit sign. This of course, plays right into Umno’s hands - it means fewer people who will be here to vote for Pakatan Rakyat.

Jika PAS bertanding lawan Anwar Ibrahim di Kajang, Tempat PAS adalah sehina UMNO.

Kami di CU4M mendapat berita bahawa Parti Islam Se-Malaysia akan bertanding di  Dun Kajang. Apakah natijahnya pihak PAS ingin melakukan perkara tersebut. Adakah ianya untuk menyekat kebebasan yang akan pasti dibawa oleh Anwar Ibrahim di dalam negeri Selangor ini?

Kami ingin mengingatkan pihak PAS bahawa PAS tidak mampu untuk menjaga kebajikan rakyat Selangor. Kononya sebagai parti bumiputera terkuat di dalam Pakatan Rakyat, PAS harus sedar bahawa mereka tidak mampu untuk melaksanakan apa yang diperlukan oleh rakyat Selangor. Sebab itulah mereka gagal dalam usaha untuk memgang tampuk pemerintahan negeri tersebut. Jika mereka yang terkuat, maka kenapa tiada seorang pun diantara mereka yang memantau pergerakan JAIS semasa mereka menindas orang Kristian di Selangor?

Amaran kepada PAS. Jika mereka menguji kekuatan kami, mereka akan GAGAL.

Anwar Ibrahim For Kajang!

Admin CU4M.

In the aftermath of church attack, Sarawak leaders warn of more to come

SARAWAK: Two Sarawak politicians warned that a Molotov cocktail attack at a Penang church was "the beginning of things to come", with one saying the incident happened because of a "weak prime minister".

Outspoken Sarawak Land Development Minister Tan Sri James Masing said the attack was worrying as it was clearly a warning to cow Christians into giving up their struggle in the "Allah" row.

"I have said it before. The dark clouds are approaching and this is probably just the beginning. It is getting very worrying now with reports of such violence,” the Sarawak minister said of the latest acts of violence and provocation against Christians.

Masing hoped that the violence will not get any worse and spiral out of control.

Last week, Masing, in reacting to the decree by the Sultan of Kedah, who is the reigning Yang di-Pertuan Agong, that several words, including Allah, are exclusive to Muslims, said the decree was a signal that "dark clouds are approaching".

Masing, president of the Barisan Nasional (BN) component party Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), said it was getting ominous for Christians in the country where religious tolerance is concerned, with a clear trend now to push the use of the word Allah exclusively for Muslims.

Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian was more biting in his reaction. "This is what you get when you have a weak prime minister".

He slammed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for being silent on the Allah row for a long spell, which far-right Malay groups and Umno members took advantage to fan religious intolerance.

Najib broke his silence last week, but his statement that the 10-point solution still stands in Sabah and Sarawak but in the peninsula, it was subjected to the respective state enactments, drawing more criticism.

Two Muslim lawmakers, who have spearheaded efforts to build bridges between Christians and Muslims following the "Allah" row, have also urged Christians not to fall into the trap set by agent provocateurs.

Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad and Sepang MP Hanipa Maidin in urging Catholics to remain calm, said yesterday's firebombing of the church was carried out by those out to instigate racial and religious tensions.

"It was an irresponsible and very un-Islamic act. Every Muslim should condemn it and not allow these provocateurs to hijack the name of Islam and turn it into a religion of enmity and hatred," Khalid said.

These instigators, he said, were using the name of Islam to create religious tension to "survive the political climate".

"I have said this before. Certain parties want to create racial and religious polarisation in order to appear as if they are looking out for the people," he added.

"They are using the religion for bad intentions and are not following the teachings of Islam.

Hanipa, in calling the incident "wicked", said this was done by "irresponsible people" who were out to incite tension.

"I hope it is not a Muslim who did it. Islam does not condone nor allow any acts of provocation," he said.

The remains of a Molotov cocktail, believed to be one of two thrown at the church in Lebuh Farquhar, Penang, yesterday morning. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, January 28, 2014.The remains of a Molotov cocktail, believed to be one of two thrown at the church in Lebuh Farquhar, Penang, yesterday morning. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, January 28, 2014.He believed that the incident – along with a string of other "provocations" connected to the "Allah" row – was to divert the attention of the public from other pressing issues such as the rising cost of living.

Both Hanipa and Khalid, who are also PAS leaders, have been instrumental in holding dialogues with Christians along with their party member Datuk Mujahid Yusof Rawa, after the Allah issue blew up in 2009.

Tensions heightened in Penang on Sunday when banners which read, "Allah is Great, Jesus is the son of Allah", were hung outside five churches in Penang – the Victory Lutheran Church, St John Britto Catholic Church, The Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Church of the Assumption on the island and the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Butterworth.This banner was found at the entrance of five churches in Penang last Sunday. – Pic courtesy of Anil Netto, January 28, 2014.This banner was found at the entrance of five churches in Penang last Sunday. – Pic courtesy of Anil Netto, January 28, 2014.

The firebomb attack at the Church of the Assumption in Lebuh Farquhar, Penang, on Sunday came just about a month before the Catholic church's leave application to the Federal Court.

The church is appealing against the Court of Appeal ruling, which overturned a High Court decision which allowed Catholic weekly, Herald, to use the word "Allah".

Following the High Court decision in 2009, some 10 churches and few mosques were attacked or vandalised nationwide. Three churches in Kuala Lumpur were also firebombed. --The Malaysian Insider

Kristian Sabah bekerjasama halang diislamkan

Kumpulan Kristian yang mewakili pelbagai kelompok dominasi di Sabah kini bekerjasama dalam kempen persaingan agama susulan beberapa cubaan untuk mengislamkan mereka.

Perpaduan Anak Negeri Sabah (PAN) akan keluar selama enam bulan untuk berkumpul bersama Kristian pribumi untuk bersatu menyeru Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak mengeluarkan kenyataan berkenaan penggunaan kalimah Allah untuk Kristian Bumiputera.

"Kita mahu PM cakap sesuatu. Beliau bukan PM Melayu sahaja, tetapi PM semua orang," kata Pengerusi PAN, Esther Golingi kepada The Malaysian Insider.

PAN mengambil semangat Kadazan Dusun Murut lama ketika perang, Mamangkis yang digunakan oleh nenek moyang mereka untuk menghimpunkan pahlawan untuk berperang.

Golingi bagaimanapun berkata, seruan sekarang adalah dalam bentuk konteks sebagai Kristian seruan untuk bangkit semula.

PAN akan mengadakan mamangkis di Ranau pada Jumaat ini sebagai sebahagian daripada program mereka dengan sasaran ratusan Kristian akan turut serta. - 23 Januari, 2014.

Sabah Christians band together to stop conversions to Islam

A Christian group, representing various denominations in Sabah, is embarking on a major religious revival campaign following dubious attempts to convert some of their flock to Islam.

Perpaduan Anak Negeri Sabah (PAN) will go on a six-month campaign to gather indigenous Christians to unite and urge Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to speak up on the “Allah” issue for Christian Bumiputeras.

“We want the PM to say something. He is not a PM for the Malays only but a PM for everyone,” PAN chairperson Esther Golingi told The Malaysian Insider.

PAN is reviving the spirit of an old Kadazan Dusun Murut war cry “mamangkis” which was a used by their ancestors to rally warrior troops for battle.

However, Golingi said the calls now are being “contextualised as a Christian clarion call for revival.”

PAN will hold a mamangkis event in Ranau tomorrow as part of its statewide programme. It expects several hundred Christians to turn up.

PAN’s mobilisation effort comes amid reports of a group of about 64 people, including children, from three villages in the remote Pitas district – Kampung Layung Maliau, Dowokon and Sosop – being tricked into converting to Islam.

They claimed a neighbour told them “some people from Kuala Lumpur” were offering them “financial assistance” of RM800 but only if they went to Pitas to collect it.

On New Year's Day, they did. Instead of receiving the financial assistance at the Pitas town hall, they claimed they were made to go to a nearby mosque instead.

There the villagers were given RM100 and asked to put their thumbprint on a document. They were then told to stand in a line and recite some "foreign words".

The villagers claimed they only realised they were converted when some of them brought home the document and showed it to their church leaders.

Upset over broken promises by Putrajaya to Sabah when Malaysia was first formed, PAN said that it is worried that the religious freedom guaranteed in the Federal Constitution was no longer being upheld.

“We hold nothing against Islam if it was embraced with free choice. But we condemn such conversions as they were done through deceit, intimidation or bribery,” she said.

“We want to worship God. We want to be united as Christians. With more than 30,000 Sabahans working in the peninsula, what happened to our religious freedom?” said Golingi, adding that Sabahan Christians can no longer carry their Malay language Bibles, Alkitab, with them when in the peninsula.

Groups in Sabah and Sarawak are growing restless over the “Allah” issue as most indigenous tribes, who are Christians, are feeling the religious tension as the issue boils over from the peninsula to the two states.

“Today, we have lost our God-given freedom in every sense of the word. We are not even allowed to refer to God as ‘Allah’ in our liturgical language. Worse, we are not even allowed to teach our children and their children about God, whom they know as ‘Allah’, the almighty creator of the universe and all that is in it.”

Golingi said that religion was now used as a political tool and that Malaysia should go back to basics.

“We need to uphold the Constitution of our land and it says we have our freedom of religion. Freedom of religion means freedom of religion.”

Religious tension between Muslims and Christians in the country heightened after the Selangor Religious Affairs Department (Jais) seized some 300 copies of the Bible in Malay and Iban.

The raiding party also detained BSM chairman Lee Min Choon and manager Sinclair Wong.

Following that, Muslim groups had protested near a church in Klang against the right of Malay-speaking Christians to worship in Bahasa Malaysia using the word “Allah”.

Prior to the 2011 Sarawak elections, Putrajaya had endorsed a 10-point solution to allow Christians in Sabah and Sarawak to use “Allah” in the Malay version of the Bible, which was negotiated by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala.

The editor of Catholic weekly Herald Rev Father Lawrence Andrew is being investigated for sedition after he had been reported by The Malaysian Insider as saying that churches in Selangor would continue using the word “Allah” during their Bahasa Malaysia services.

His statement was in response to Jais's announcement that it would write to all churches in Selangor and tell them not to use the word "Allah" in their worship and publication.

Last week, church leaders of various denominations had come out to say that they were united with the Catholic church on the stand that Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Christians should be allowed to use the word "Allah" in their worship.

Throughout this, Putrajaya has kept silent on the issue even as Christians looked to Idris Jala for an explanation.

Christians form about 9% of Malaysia's 29 million population. Almost two-thirds of Christians in Malaysia are Bumiputera and are largely based in Sabah and Sarawak, where they routinely use Bahasa Malaysia and indigenous languages in their religious practices, including describing God as “Allah” in their prayers and holy book.

Besides the Bumiputera Christians from Sabah and Sarawak, some of whom have moved to the peninsula to live and work, Orang Asli Christians in the peninsula also typically use Bahasa Malaysia in their worship. – January 23, 2014.

Catholicism vs Christianity

Catholicism is a denomination, hence a subset, of Christianity. All Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholics. A Christian refers to a follower of Jesus Christwho may be a Catholic, Protestant, Gnostic, Mormon, Evangelical, Anglican or Orthodox, or follower of another branch of the religion.

A Catholic refers to a Christian who follows the Catholic religion as transmitted through the succession of Popes of Rome and the Vatican Empire across history. The Pope is the leader of the Catholic church. The Catholic Church is the largest of the Christian Churches - about 60% of Christians are Catholic.

Comparison between Christians and Catholicism

Attacks On Malaysian Christian On Muhammad Birthday.

Letters from Muhammad To Christians. 

We do not know what is happening in our Malaysia. Religious unity is being maliciously attacked each and everyday. Malaysia once took pride of its multicultural heritage, but now it seems that everyone is doing their best to ensure that we will be divided and prejudice is spread through out the nation.

With all due respect, this is not an article to attack your prophet Muhammad, this is an article to condemn those who use the prophets birthday to launch an all out attack towards other religion especially Christianity. In yesterday's "Maulidur Razul" event, many pro-Government Muslim Leaders took a swing at the Christian, especially in the issue of the Jais Bible Raid and the Usage of The Word Allah by non-Muslims. They use the birth of their saviour, in trying to attack Christians and other pro-democracy movement.

They even created a story where a Christian supposedly attended the "Maulid Mass" wearing shirts written with the name of Christ. The story was even picked up by many Pro-Government blogger. And according to their side of the tale, the said "teenager" was chased out from the mosque by those who attended the birthday of their beloved prophet. .

We condemn the act of provocation by people such as this particular Pro-Government blogger. We hope that the blogger nicknamed as Azmi Awang Kelana Jaya should repent for defaming Christianity. http://azmykelanajaya.blogspot.com/

 This is obviously a trick to enraged the whole Muslim population so that they will hate the Christians in Malaysia.

We do not know who is the culprit of this monstrosity, however, we hope that these people who wore the shirt of Churches to provoked Christians in Malaysia will be dealt with by the hand of God Himself.

Nothing good will come out of this provocation. We the Admin of CU4M condemn these act of provocation by our Muslim friends. If the Muslim in this country still value the friendship that we have built all these years, we insist that this act must be stopped immediately.

In conjunction of the Prophet's birthday, we would like to ask our Muslim friend to think of their own prophet before attacking Christians. Maybe they forgot that the Prophet Muhammad protected Christians during his reign as the King of Saudi Arabia.