It Seems that YOU my Dear "Friend" Are the Problem.

With all due respect, I tolerate points of views and differences, unless you are indirectly attacking me for my beliefs. And that is what one of my, I thought friends is doing. I have known her before she started attending Bible Studies.

However, when she attends Bible Studies, she begins to have some attitude against me--but in a passive aggressive way. I have been tolerant so for, ignoring many of her indirect insults, because she is an older lady and I like to give her the benefit of the doubt. However, my patience is running thin.

The other ladies in my coffee group are great and very respectful at least in front of me. The Bible Studies student jumps on my case when we talk about pork products or other "Christian" topics. Some of the other ladies and I have made it a joke every time someone mentions pork products. We would laugh. But the Bible Studies student will arrogantly say, "So what. I had ham the other day." or "I like pork chops." etc. I don't care what a person eats, that's their business.

The irony of all this is that Bible Studies student was never like this with me until she started attending Bible Studies. I am not naive. I have had Christian friends tell me that some of the churches and Bible Studies programs promote hatred towards Muslims and other faiths. These are things that make you go hmm.

Don't be surprised if her and I get in another tiff. I say tiff because she vehemently stood against the Gazans when they were enduring a humanitarian crisis. I found out her true identity, when she wouldn't let me talk about it. We didn't talk for a few months. We mended relations, but I don't think it will go back to the way it was.

I thought when you study a religion, you become more spiritual and tolerant of diversity and those of other faiths, not the other way around. An arrogant person disrespectful of others' faiths.

It seems that YOU my dear friend are the problem.

Is Allah for Everyone?

Recently there has been an uproar about the use of the name "Allah" by Christian missionaries in Malaysia. Here is a basic lowdown on Malaysia's religious breakdown. Malays are known to be Muslims - they are born Muslims and do not convert out of Islam (this is what is stated in the mainstream media). A fraction of non-Malays, who are mostly Chinese and Indians, are Christians. The rest are Buddhists and Hindus respectively. I would say Christinaity has be spreading widely in Malaysia. We see the church doing alot of charity and social work that allow them to be the attractive choice of "way of life."

Recently they have requested to use the name "Allah" instead of "God" in their English publications.

The government (mainly Muslim) rejected their request in order to safeguard the sanctity of Allah's name, citing that it would not befit Allah Ta'ala to have association with the Church. I can't speak for the Muslim reaction but I would guess many would be bewildered as to why Christians would want to be associated with "Allah" in the first place. "They" worship God, we worship Allah.

When I first hear about this I thought, well the Arabic Bible is written in Arabic, and God is known as Allah. That was my first reaction, which stunned many. I guess not many people know that an Arabic bible exists let alone Christian Arabs exist. At the same time, I do feel worried that such gazetted Christian publications with the reference to God as Allah and Prophet Jesus (blessings upon him) as "son of Allah" would be misleading to Muslims who lack the opportunities to pursue a fulfilling education. By reading stories or publications with such references, children especially could easily interpret that what they were reading was a Muslim message.

I don't disagree with the missionaries using the name Allah. As for as I am concerned, Allah is the work for God in Arabic, and in actual fact, Muslims worship God and God alone. Sure, I do not believe that Allah has a son - and that is why I am not a Christian - and having said that, I also do not believe that God has a son - it is exactly the same thing. I understand that Muslims revere "Allah" in a way no other religion does, I do not deny that. At the same time however, the fact that these particular group of Christians are accepting the word "Allah" as God speaks for itself.

Muslims are often represented as worshippers of Allah the God of the Moon, Allah the Arabic God, Allah the God of Something or Another - and some other extremely hurtful and atrocious names and descriptions. Na'uzubillah. I feel somehow, this change acts as silent da'wa for Muslims. Could the Christian missionaries in the long run suddenly realise that the word Allah is a word for God that can never pluralised? Allah can never represent more than one deity, let alone 3. We will see, Allah knows best.

I think it is a good thing, that after some thought, the government reversed their decision, allowing the Church to substitute God for Allah. Allah knows best, Allah knows best. He Himself preserves his religion in ways we fail to imagine.

But for Muslims, especially those who are still learning to understand Islam as the complete way of life and have not studied other religions to understand their beliefs and practices, it is a call to wake up and learn to appreciate what Islam has to offer. I speak for myself too. I believe that if I had not known about the Arabic bible I would have strongly opposed such a request by the Church.

It is not fair to blame others when brothers and sisters leave the faith. Christianity and Judaism share more similarities to Islam than differences - and we should know of both of them. There are plenty of honourable references to Christians and Jews in the Qur'an as the People of the Book.

We will see how this unravels - I am sure this has happened in other countries - the word Allah being used in other religions. If there are, let us know, it would be interesting to see how Muslims around the world react to changes like this.