By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
KUALA LUMPUR: Church leaders representing the East Malaysian Christian community said today they hoped the government would come up with a solution which enables them to continue to use the word “Allah” in their daily worship.

Speaking to reporters after the High Court here set a date to hear the case of Jill Lawrence, a Melanau who is suing the government for confiscating CDs containing the word “Allah”, the church representatives stated that the word “Allah” would still be used during Sunday services.

“Before this, there was no problem with using the word for our daily worship. Of course, the Christians in East Malaysia are not happy with the tussle, but we will wait and see what the court decides,” said Pastor Danil Raut, who is the president of the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) church in Peninsular Malaysia.

An SIB church in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan was the latest to have been hit by the spate of attacks on churches throughout the peninsula, where firebombs were thrown at some churches.

The latest lawsuit involving the use of “Allah” has set the stage for another court battle over the word.

The country has been gripped by a raging debate over the word since the High Court ruled on Dec 31, 2010 that the Catholic weekly Herald’s Bahasa Malaysia edition had a constitutional right to use the word “Allah” in the Christian sense.

The ruling sparked protests from Muslim groups and has been linked to a series of firebombing and arson attacks against at least eight churches in the past few days.

Besides Raut, other church leaders who were present in court to lend their backing for the latest legal challenge included Pastor Alfred Tias, the executive secretary of the Bahasa Commission of the NECF (National Evangelical Christian Fellowship) and Pastor Simon Petraus, the vice-president of SIB in peninsular Malaysia.

When asked what they thought of isolated suggestions from a few Christian laymen to stop using the word “Allah” in order to diffuse the escalating tension in the country, Raut said that they would not stop using it because it has been used for a long time.

“I am from Sarawak, of the Lumbayang tribe, and we have been using ‘Allah’ for a long time. It is used in our mother tongue. ‘Tuhan Allah’ is our God.

“He has his right to say what he wants, but he doesn’t speak on behalf of all Christians,” he said, referring to a suggestion from a Sarawakian Christian, which was highlighted by a number of newspapers yesterday.

According to Raut, there are currently 10,000 SIB church members in peninsular Malaysia and 250,000 members in Sabah and Sarawak.

Out of the 10,000 in the peninsula, about 1,000 members are Orang Asli Christians.

“There are 36 congregations in peninsular Malaysia. 31 are conducted in Bahasa Malaysia, three in English and two in Chinese,” said Raut.

The pastors avoided giving direct answers when asked on what they thought would be a proper solution to the on-going issue.

“I cannot comment on how the government is doing… they are doing their best to solve this problem. For our part, it is very difficult to not use the word in our worship,” added Raut.

He, however, maintained that the relationship between Muslims and Christians in East Malaysia was not affected as a result of the church attacks.

“We don’t have a problem for East Malaysia. For us, relationship is more important. Our members never react to what is going on right now. Yes, the fear is there but the fear does not overcome the importance of relationship.”

Courtesy: TheMalaysianInsider