Do you know that besides the term “Allah”, non-Muslims in Malaysia are also prohibited from using dozens other terms either orally or in writing? Different states have their own list of terms prohibited.
For example, in the state of Selangor, under the Non-Islamic Religions Enactment 1988, non-Muslims are not allowed to use:
1) Allah
2) firman Allah
3) nabi
4) mubaligh
5) syariat
6) wahyu
7) mufti
8) Kaabah
9) hadis
10) rasul
11) iman
12) ibadah
13) fatwa
14) haji
15) kiblat
16) Ilahi
17) Injil
18) ulama
19) khalifah
20) wali
21) Syeikh
22) Iman
23) dakwah
24) subhanallah
25) insya-Allah
26) astaghfirullahlah
27) masya-Allah
28) Allahuakbar
Not to be outshone, the Islamic council for the state of Melaka (MAIM) published their even longer list of prohibited terms, on Wednesday:
1) Allah
2) firman Allah
3) ulama
4) hadis
5) ibadah
6) kaabah
7) kadi
8) Ilahi
9) wahyu
10) mubaligh
11) syariat
12) kiblat
13) haji
14) mufti
15) rasul
16) iman
17) dakwah
18) solat
19) khalifah
20) wali
21) fatwa
22) imam
23) nabi
24) sheikh
25) akhirat
26) azan
27) al-Quran
28) al-Sunnah
29) hauliak
30) karamah
31) shahadah
32) masjid
33) Baitullah
34) Subhanallah
35) Alhamdulillah
36) Lailahaillallah
37) Walillahilhamd
38) Allahu Akbar
39) insya-Allah
40) Astaghfirullah Azim
41) Tabaraka Allah
42) masya-Allah
43) Lahaula Walaquata Illabillahil Azim
44) Assalamualaikum
45) Wallahi, Wabillahi
46) Watallahi
47) Auzubillah
Notice those words I bolded and coloured? I can’t believe they ban us from using those common Malay terms. So I can’t address anyone with Haji anymore even though thats part of their name? I can’t greet my Muslim friends anymore with Assalamualaikum? I can’t utter masjid (mosque) anymore? The Christian’s Holy Bible is known as Kitab Injil among the Muslims. But now they are saying that we can’t use the word Injil anymore! So how?!
Why don’t you just ban us from using your Bahasa Melayu?! That would solves any “confusions” and problems. I’m pretty sure a lot of people will be more than happy to not use that language in their exams, workplace, court or when filling up government forms.
Or maybe the Arabs should enact a law prohibiting all non-Arabs from using their Arabic language. Then all Malaysians will not be able to confuse each other with those words listed above, since more than half of those terms were borrowed from the Arabs (when they came to South East Asia to propogate Islam many centuries ago).
Will we then really be 1Malaysia finally?