The 'ALLAH' controversy again.

I recently attended 2 talks at UTM in KL.  One was delivered by Imam Afroz Ali from Australia and the other by our distinguished professor, YM Tan Sri Prof. Dr. Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas. Neither were about the Allah issue, but some points came up that I think are necessary for us to understand what it is about.

Imam Afroz at Dewan Jummah, UTM

Prof. Al-Attas at Dewan Utama, UTM

Firstly, "Allah" is not the monopoly of any group or persons.  Secondly, "Allah" is the specific name of the unique and only creator of the universe.  The generic "God" in Arabic is "illah".

So if anyone wants to use the word "Allah" in it's meaning of the unique creator and the one and only worthy of worship, no one should have any problems with that.  But if the word is to mean anything different, such as one of many or one of a third, than it is not acceptable.

When I saw a copy of the Al Kitab, the Indonesian Bible (I have never seen a Malay Bible), the verse at Mark 12:29 "...Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one." is translated as "...Dengarlah, hai orang Israel, Tuhan Allah kita, Tuhan itu esa." (Markus 12:29).  I.e. the specific "Allah" is used to translate the generic "God" while "LORD" (it is capitalized in this case denoting a specific name) is translated using the generic "Tuhan".

Using a specific name of God to describe a generic term seems to be what Muslims in Malaysia consider as insulting.  If the Arabs and Pakistanis have no issues with this, its their problem to live with.

Maybe the Churches in Malaysia and the Malaysian Authorities should consider getting out a Malay translation of the Al Kitab so that Christians can practice their faith in peace and Muslims don't feel insulted.

The Sikhs use "Allah" to mean the One God and "Allah" is not associated with the name of any of their Gurus.  (Any Sikhs think that this statement is wrong, please correct me.  Thanks.)  That's probably why they are not really involved in this controversy like the Christians.

Note:  Why I choose Mark 12:29?  That was what I could find with 'Lord' and 'God' in the same verse, given the short time I had.