What's in a name ?

A lot apparently.

A recent Cabinet ruling has meant that the word Allah can only be used in reference to God according to the Islamic faith. No one else can use Allah to refer to God. While some may ask what the big deal is about, after all a god by any other name is still a god now, isn't it ?

While the Constitution guarantees us the right to practise the faith of our choice, it apparently does not give us the right to call our deities by a name we choose. Especially since Allah has been used to reference the god of the Abrahamic faiths, Christianity and Jewism, since pre-Islam times. One wonders if this ruling by the cabinet is a prelude to G.O.D., a Government Ordained Deity ? Are we moving from one nation under God to one God over the nation ?

Coming as it is so close to the general elections, this then becomes a political minefield which candidates from both sides of the fence will have to grapple with. A minefield because some may perceive this line of questioning to questioning the position of Islam as the national religion. It may also reopen the earlier debate on whether Malaysia is a secular nation.

SiPM believes that everyone has a right to practise his own faith, and everyone has a right to call his deities by any name he chooses be it Allah, God, Jesus, Krishna, Vishnu or just Bob. We shouldn't be legislating these things for religion is a personal and spiritual thing to each individual and people tend to take these things, well, quite religiously.

In fact, some members of our original people in Borneo have used organic methods to spiritually bond with their god. Mydeen has faith in these things, because as we all know, Mydeen uses some high quality organic greens in his fish curry to complement the underwear.

So let's all sit back, practise our faiths in any form which we need, and lets all call a God a God.



P.S. The original video in its released form is here.