Christian groups claim the right to use the term “Allah” in their own religious scripts. However the Islamist political party Pan-Malaysian has defended its exclusive right to use the word “Allah”.
According to an Al-Arabiya report, PAS newspaper Harakahdaily published that the Islamic party suggested that non-Islamic minority groups could use the Malay word for God “Tuhan” in their Malay-language Bible.
“There are sensitive elements such as the Declaration of Faith (Shahadah) and Allah, which must be used in the correct context, otherwise there could be unease in a multi-religious society in view of the present situation”, said Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, Chief of PAS information. He also said that the Christians in West do not refer to God as ‘Allah’ in their religious texts refering to various scripts of Bible.
Lim Guan Eng, Secretary General of Malaysian Multi-Racial Democratic Action Party revived the ongoing debate by broadcasting a Christmas message urging the Federal government to permit Malay-Language Bibles to publish the word ‘Allah’.