Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak assured Muslims that his government would continue to defend the name of “Allah” and uphold the position of Islam, even as it embraced the concept of moderation.
In a message during the celebration of Maal Hijrah celebration, the Malaysian leader said that even as Malaysia upholds the Federal Constitution and the position of Islam as the country’s official religion, it also holds strong to the concept of “Wasatiyyah” or moderation.
He reminded Muslims that the underlying message of the Maal Hijrah celebration, or the Islamic new year, is to command Muslims to embrace changes and move forward.
“It will produce Muslims who are always creative and innovative, who stay relevant in the current times and challenge the mainstream,” he said in the message posted on his blog www.1malaysia.com.my
“To appreciate the broader meaning of migration, we still uphold our religion and defend the name of Allah for the sake of religion, race and our beloved country.
“Malaysia, which upholds the Constitution and Islam as the country’s official religion, will remain steadfast to defending the position of Islam in the country based on Maqasid Syariah and the prudent concept of Wasatiyyah,” he added.
Malaysians have been embroiled in a major tug-of-war battle over the word “Allah”, the Arabic translation to “God” that many Muslim groups here insist belongs exclusively to those of the Islamic faith.
But Christians and other non-Muslim religious followers here have argued otherwise, a position that Malaysia’s Muslim-majority government disagreed with, and which later led to a dispute that led saw Catholic weekly The Herald hauled to court in 2009 for a long drawn out legal battle over the word.
The battle came to a head early last month when the Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Ministry’s decision to ban the use of the word in the Herald was justified, finding that the use of the word “Allah” was not integral to the practice of the Christian faith.
The ruling — which overturned an earlier High Court decision that the ban was unconstitutional — has since sparked confusion over the use of the Middle Eastern word by Christians in their worship, especially with conflicting opinions within the government itself on how far the ruling would affect practising Christians.
Source
Image: Herald Malaysia
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