"The Christianity of history is not Protestantism. If ever there were a safe truth it is this, and Protestantism has ever felt it so; to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant." (-John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine).

"Where the bishop is, there let the people gather; just as where ever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church". -St. Ignatius of Antioch (ca 110 AD)a martyr later thrown to the lions, wrote to a church in Asia Minor. Antioch was also where the term "Christian" was first used.

“But if I should be delayed, you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15

"This is the sole Church of Christ, which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic." -CCC 811

Monday, March 2, 2009

Is Arabic Script Exclusively "Islamic"?

Funny but it’s true. The Malaysian Government has dug up again old rotting issues legitimizing the use of Arabic “Allah” exclusively for Muslims which would deliberately prosecute any non-Muslims who would use the word to indicate the ‘Christian’ God. Those “backward-minded” Muslim clerics wanted to make sure that Muslims could distinguish “their” God (Allah) to “our” God (Yahweh) as if there are two distinct Gods that Abraham had preached.

The truth is, according to Raja Mattar in his article "Arab Christians are Arabs”, Christian Arabs “have always existed in the Middle East, and long before the advent of Islam.”

I see this as part of the misunderstanding of their Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) regarding the Christian theology on Trinity. Christians never preach that there are several Gods just because we believed in the Trinity. Their Prophet (pbuh) believed that the Trinity is composed of God, Jesus and his mother Mary which is not even reflected in all existing and historical development of the doctrine. According to our Catechism, there IS ONLY ONE GOD, who revealed himself in 3 Personhood, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Understandably, their charges of “polytheism” of Christians stemmed from the Qu’ranic verse 5:73-75, 116 (read here) that says, “They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the third of three; when there is no Allah save the One Allah. If they desist not from so saying a painful doom will fall on those of them who disbelieve.”
As I have posted in my blog (here), Abraham preached One God and that whether his name is translated to other languages it never diminish HIS true essence as Lord, Almighty, Benevolent, Most Merciful, Forgiving, All-Knowing etc., The Bible says, God is the same “yesterday, today and forever” which means we can never make HIM lesser with our definition nor we can limit him through our limited language.

Allah is a word now accepted in the English dictionary which was derived from the Arabic n. Allāh : al-, the + ’ilāh, god. From its definition, it’s an Arabic word (not Islamic- read here) and not all Arabs are Muslims. History would prove that before the advent of Islam through its prophet (pbuh), most of Arabian inhabitants were either Jews or Christians or pagans (read here) who have spoken the very same Arabic that is now used in its Qu’ran.

Sickening topic though but with this fresh issue being circulated around the world through the media ‘islamophobes’ (as they love to call those who opposes Islam) would add something to their long list of Islamic religious intolerance around the world.

Will someone from any of the the Islamic States beg to disagree with the Malaysian Government?

From JihadWatch:

Malaysia Restores 'Allah' Ban for Christians
Monday, March 02, 2009

Print ShareThisKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Malaysian government will issue a new decree restoring a ban on Christian publications using the word "Allah" to refer to God, officials said Sunday.

Home Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar said a previous Feb. 16 decree that allowed Christian publications to use the word as long as they specified the material was not for Muslims was a mistake, the national Bernama news agency reported.

The about-turn came after Islamic groups slammed the government and warned that even conditional use of the word by Christians would anger Muslims, who make up the country's majority.

A senior ministry official confirmed Syed Hamid's comments, saying there were "interpretation mistakes" in the Feb. 16 decree that led to the confusion.

"'Allah' cannot be used for other religions except Islam because it might confuse Muslims. This is the ministry's stand and it hasn't changed," the official, who declined to be named citing protocol, told The Associated Press.

The official said the ministry was likely to issue a new decree to annul the old one and effectively re-impose the ban.

The dispute has become symbolic of increasing religious tensions in Malaysia, where 60 percent of the 27 million people are Muslim Malays. A third of the population is ethnic Chinese and Indian, and many of them practice Christianity.

Malaysia's minorities have often complained that their constitutional right to practice their religions freely has come under threat from the Malay Muslim-dominated government. They cite destruction of Hindu temples and conversion disputes as examples. The government denies any discrimination.

The Herald, the Roman Catholic Church's main newspaper in the country, had filed a legal suit to challenge the government ban on non-Muslims using the word. (Read more
here ).



As a reminder to the Malaysian Government who wants to exclude Christians from using the Arabic word "Allah", here's Mr. Raja Mattar has to say:

"What used to be known as Bilad Al Sham (Greater Syria, if you will) was Arabized long before Islam. To quote Salibi again (ch. 5): "Since pre-Islamic times, Mount Lebanon appears to have been densely populated by Arab tribes.." In ch. 7: "To maintain that the Syrians came to be arabized after the conquest of their country by the Muslim Arabs was simply not correct, because Syria was already largely inhabited by Arabs - in fact, Christian Arabs - long before Islam."

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Note:
pbuh is an abreviation of "Peace be upon him" connected immediately after mentioning any of the "prophets" in Islamic religion. It's a form of respecting their Islamic belief.

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