If you follow what is happening in Malaysia after High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan ruled on New Year’s Eve that the use of the word “Allah” is not exclusive to Muslims and that the Roman Catholic newpaper The Herald can use it in its publication, you will know that several leaders have urged dialogue as the means to resolve this issue. Now a dialogue session has just ended, and the outcome seems to show that the dialogue participants are living in a strange world.
The government-linked Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM) has concluded its discussion last week on the Allah ruling. Former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi chaired the closed-door expert discussion. Later he told reporters that the participants “unanimously agreed” the source of the problem leading to the Allah ruling was due to “inaccurate” Christian translation of “God” as “Allah”. He said: ““There were no dissenting views. It was unanimous.” As such, he pushed for inter-faith dialogues to resolve the problem.
But who were these participants? They were 70 of them. They include former Perlis Mufti Dr Asri Zainul Abidin, PAS president, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang; PKR central leadership council member, Dr Mohd Nur Manuty; religious adviser to the prime minister, Datuk Dr Abdullah Md Zain; Dr Kamar Oniah Kamaruzzaman, an associate professor in the International Islamic University’s Usuluddin and Comparative Religion department; Dr Mohd Sani Badron, IKIM’s centre of economic and social studies director; and his IKIM colleague Md Asham Ahmad, a fellow in the centre for syariah, law and politics centre, representatives from the Attorney General’s Chambers, state Islamic councils, state mufti department, academics and non-governmental Muslim organisations.
But some people are wondering how there could be “unanimous” agreement when some of the speakers/participants have previously openly atated that the word “Allah” is not copyrighted to Muslims and that Christians can use that term?
Now Dr Asri Zainul Abidin has denied this. He said the main thrust of the expert discussion centered on whether non-Muslims could use the word “Allah”. He said: “The question was whether they could use or not.” And according to Dr Asri Zainul Abidin, the general agreement is that they can, based on certain guidelines.
A joint clarification from Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, Dr Mohd Nur Manuty and Dr Asri Zainul Abidin said: “We say they can use the word ‘Allah’, but must have certain guidelines.”
The statement added: “To ensure national harmony, this debate should be resolved by promoting the culture of inter-faith dialogue which is mature and intelligent. The irresponsible use of the word “Allah” must be avoided so that it does not become an issue which can affect racial and religious harmony. As such a guideline on its use must be established.”
Dr Asri Zainul Abidin said that the stand that non-Muslims were mistranslating the word “Allah” is IKIM’s stand. But that was not the main thrust of the expert discussion.
So there you have it. In this strange world of dialogue, even when 70 odd experts gather for an expert discussion, not everyone is on the same page. In fact, not everyone is on the same agenda. Different people seems to be discussing the issue on different panes. And coming to different conclusion.
Inter-faith dialogue seems to be the buzz word now, as people have been saying that the Allah ruling controversy cannot be resolved through the court. But even then, the word “dialogue” appears to have different meaning to different people.
Take for example, Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department. He is championing inter-faith dialogue to resolve this issue, highlighting the initiatives by agencies such as the Institute of Islamic Understanding. But at the same time he called on church leaders to stop using “Allah” to refer to “God”. Later he called on different states’ religious authorities to challenge High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan’s ruling on the Allah issue. What kind of inter-faith dialogue is this going to be? What can be achieved if prior to going to an inter-faith dialogue the Malaysian Government has already determined what the outcome of the dialogue should be? What a strange world of dialogue indeed.
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