Malaysia, Truly Arabia! Intolerance Rules Kuala Lumpur Court!

Like, who the hell are we, any of us, to claim we know God Almighty well enough to deny anyone else the right to address Him in any way they see fit? That, to me, is akin to blasphemy.

Yet the highest court in the land has now ruled that Malaysian Christians may not call God ‘Allah’ – a ruling that effectively relegates a universal deity to the status of a monopoly controlled by sectarian bigots.

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Thanks be, that vile nonsense has not spread to Indonesia, linguistically and culturally so similar to Malaysia, yet with a resilient civility and tolerance that make me proud on days like this.

Listen to this ranting arrogance –

Anyone who seeks to review the Federal Court’s decision today over the ban on the word “Allah” can be considered as abusing the powers of the court…

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 Mohammed Haniff Khatri Abdulla

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….Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, who represents the Chinese Muslim Association of Malaysia, said today’s decision should mark the end of the Catholic Church’s legal bid to use the word “Allah” in its weekly publication, Herald.

Those strident words came after the Federal Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s October decree, that the Catholic paper could not use the word “Allah” as it could threaten national security, public order and cause confusion among the religions.

The Muslim Lawyers Association called on all parties to respect the Federal Court’s decision to dismiss the Catholic Church’s review application.

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• More to the point, who can respect a nation whose highest court – by 4 votes to 3 –  claims that a question of theology is a matter of ‘national security?’

And which implicitly insults the intelligence of every Muslim in Malaysia by saying in effect that they are so clueless about the tenets of their own faith that hearing Christians pray to God using the same Name as they do would ‘confuse’ them.

As for ‘public order,’ how people pray is no threat to that. The real risk to public order comes from demented fanatics like these – 

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And from the ignorant savage who shrilled that the innocent passengers on Malaysian Airlines’ Flight MH17, brought down by a missile, met their fate because the flight attendants weren’t wearing ‘Islamic headscarves and the airline served alcohol.’

Pig-Ignorant Primitive – No Shariah On MH17, So God Killed 200 Innocents? 

Asinine hogwash.

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My Muslim visitors in Jakarta use Tuhan and Allah interchangeably, as do Christians – one of their most common sayings is Orang sabar disayang sama Tuhan.

 ‘The patient man is dear to God.’

But this kind of news would try the patience of a saint. 

Despite my most agreeable day here, a very Indonesan day, rainy season outside, but indoors dangdut playing all afternoon and rounded off by my cheerful visitor putting the rice-cooker to good use so I can dine at leisure later tonight, I am P###ed OFF!

Malaysia wasn’t always a sectarian cess-pool.

In 2009, the High Court had declared that the decision by the home minister to ban Herald from using the word “Allah” was illegal, null and void…High Court judge Lau Bee Lan had declared it unconstitutional to ban non-Muslims from using the word “Allah” provided it was not used to propagate their religion among Muslims.

One is inclined to ask why the heck shouldn’t they. Muslims like to convert people, so Christians ought to have the same rights to proselytise.

But leave that for the moment. The sane ruling has now been reversed.

Malaysia’s battle over the use of the word “Allah” has attracted international attention, as well as ridicule, including from Islamic scholars abroad who hold that “Allah” is a generic name for God and has been used by both Muslims and non-Muslims, as the word predates Islam.  http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/any-more-appeal-on-allah-decision-an-abuse-of-courts-says-lawyer

Blind to history, then, as well as rationality.

Sad to see a country sink so low