Malaysia is a Funny country.

We are a nation with a potpourri of healthy, tolerant, understanding, harmonious, polite, and hospitable people.

The Beautiful side of Malaysians.

At the same time, we also have a pool of hideous, insensitive, selfish, moronic, rude, and extreme bastards.

The Not-So-Beautiful side of Malaysians.

Here we have a group of people trying to uphold the constitution and the law. These are the people trying to resolve the rakyat’s problems and constantly striving forward, working towards the development of the country and the prosperity of the nation.

And there, we have a group of extremists, trying to be heroes of their own race and religion, ignoring the Real social problems like unemployment (currently at 3.6% and rising), inflation and the limping economic situation haunting our country, but focus religiously on worrying on whether the word “ALLAH” can create confusion among non-muslims and be exploited for the wrong reasons.

In the words of Kelantan Menteri Besar, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, the word “ALLAH” should not be used by other religions, because it will lead to confusion among the Muslims.

“As Muslims we are afraid that the word ‘ALLAH‘ may be exploited to the extend that the Muslims may be confused when the word is used by Christians…. In the end, the church can become a Christian mosque so it will be better if the authorities stop other religions from using the word ‘ALLAH‘…”

The presence of Christianity has been on this land for centuries, since the days of the colonization of Malaya by the Portuguese, Dutch and even the British. Is GOD not spelled as ALLAH in Bahasa Melayu even way back in those times when services or mass were being celebrated for the locals? Why it didn’t confuse the Muslims back then? Why Now?

Come on guys.

This is only a matter of language and grammar for GOD’s (and/or ALLAH) sake!!!

Imagine you are in the US or Europe now and you attend a Muslim prayer session and the sermon is given in English. ALLAH in this case, will be spelled as GOD in English!

Is it possible or fair then, for the Christians in these countries to ban the Muslims in their country not to use the word GOD because it will be exploited or misused or be confused by the Muslims and other non-christians then?!!

If this were the case, imagine if you are a Muslim in the US and Europe and one day President Obama or Gordon Brown suddenly makes the following statement :

The word “GOD” should not be used by other religions, because it will lead to confusion among the Christians.

“As Christians we are afraid that the word ‘GOD‘ may be exploited to the extend that the Christians may be confused when the word is used by Muslims…. In the end, the Mosque can become a Muslim church so it will be better if the authorities stop other religions from using the word ‘GOD‘…”

What will you feel then, if you read the above statement and if you are a Muslim citizen in that country?

It is high time that the Muslims in this country realize that we are living in a secular country, and they MUST understand that to coexist with the other people in this country, they must also not only accept and respect the religion of others, but to SHARE even the nouns of the language used to bind all of us together.

In fact, ALLAH is a common colloquial among Malaysians and Singaporeans. Consider the following conversations :

Ah Lian : My boy friend don’t want to buy that Burberry beg for me wor… Why he so like that one?
Ah Hua : AL….. LAH. You go find another rich boy friend loh…

It will be conversely funny and odd, if one is suddenly forbidden of using the “ALLAH” word in their daily conversations and have to change to the word “GOD” or “TUHAN”. Imagine this :

Ah Lian : My boy friend don’t want to buy that Burberry beg for me wor… Why he so like that one?
Ah Hua : GO……………D. You go find another rich boy friend loh…

or

Ah Lian : My boy friend don’t want to buy that Burberry beg for me wor… Why he so like that one?
Ah Hua : TU……….HAN. You go find another rich boy friend loh…

So does that mean we Malaysians and Singaporeans have to stop using this colloquial too for fear that we may be brought to the Syariah Court to get our tongues cut off?

AL… LAH… PLEASE LAH… my fellow Malaysian citizens.

When will we ever Learn?