By Leslie Lau
KUALA LUMPUR: Influential Islamic scholar Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin stepped into the “Allah” controversy today by pointing out that Muslims should not protest against non-Muslims using the word “Allah” to describe God.

“Man should refer to the one true God as Allah. This proves the teachings of Islam in referring to God as Allah. Therefore all of mankind regardless of their religion should say that Allah has created the world, that Allah tells us to do good and so on.

“These words are the truth. It is not appropriate for a Muslim to protest when he hears a non-Muslim says such things,” he wrote in a posting on his blog today.

Mohd Asri’s remarks come amid an uproar among some Muslims over last week’s High Court ruling that the Catholic church had a constitutional right to publish the word “Allah” in the Bahasa Malaysia edition of its Herald newspaper.

The government has decided to appeal the ruling today, bowing to demands from Muslim groups who say they fear the ruling would result in confusion and that non-Muslims would abuse the usage of the word “Allah.”

Mohd Asri, who is also the former Perlis Mufti, suggested guidelines instead for the use of the word “Allah”.

He said that the word “Allah” could not be used except to refer to the one, true God. Therefore stones or idols could not be referred to as “Allah”.

The Islamic scholar said that if non-Muslims accept that Allah is the one true God and refer to Allah in their worship then Muslims cannot interfere in the matter of other religions.

“Even though in Islam we dispute their faith but the freedom of worship is the right of every religion,” he said.

However, he pointed out that non-Muslims should not be allowed to use the word “Allah” to propagate in such a way which insults Islam, such as to joke or to tease the name of God.

“Non-Muslims should also not manipulate the teachings of Islam by using the word Allah as bait. Action must be taken against such provocative acts,” he said, adding that using the word “Allah” in polite and respectful conversation between Muslims and non-Muslims was also acceptable.

Mohd Asri’s comments come after Father Lawrence Andrew, the priest who edits the Catholic paper, Herald, reassured Malaysians that the church was not on any campaign to convert Muslims.

“There are allegations we’re trying to convert Muslims. We’re not doing that,” Lawrence told The Malaysian Insider in a phone interview this afternoon.

“You cannot use the word ‘Allah’ anyhow. We have to use it accordingly,” he stressed and repeated his earlier explanation from Dec 31, just after the High Court ruled that the Catholic church had a constitutional right to publish the word “Allah” and overturned the home minister’s ban.

Courtesy: TheMalaysianInsider