The beginning of something ugly

“There are many who pretend that cannons are aimed at them when in reality they are the target of opera glasses.” —Bertolt Brecht

It was only in 2007 (incidentally in the build up to the 12th General Election) that national attention was brought to The Herald, the Catholic newspaper in the heat of the “Allah” controversy.

The initial question, lest we forget, was whether it could print the word in its Bahasa Malaysia section. But the issue, so overtaken by a frenzied mix of sensationalism, political manipulation and ignorance, in an already divided country, soon mutated into a climate of anti-Christian suspicions.

Copies of The Herald, we should recall, is neither sold, available, nor is it even of much demand, outside Catholic circles. But the fear that pervades common understandings of this controversy has obscured that fact. Now the case is seen as being about whether Malaysian Christians can even use the word Allah in the first place.

Gone are the basic truths of the matter: that the majority of Christians in Malaysia are in fact Bumiputeras, and that services in Bahasa evoking words like Malaikat, Iman and Rasul have been held for hundreds of years (even in Churches in the Peninsula) without much panic until now.

The fear is predicated on the assumption that the Herald's use of Allah is somehow a gateway to convert Muslims. This fear is most palpable when we consider that the Herald is also being warned against using words that are not at all in the Bahasa-Christian vocabulary such as solat, masjid and Kaabah.

This, needless to say, is predicated on a rather simplistic understanding of conversion. For one, there are larger, much deeper, paradigm shifts that would compel the complete renouncing of one's faith for another. One embraces a religion for the possible worlds and hopes it reveals, not because what God is called.

It also shows the conservative's lack of confidence in the very system they control. Whose fault would it be, if the mere use of the word “Allah” by Christians really would unleash the floodgates of Malay converts? They speak as if Christians are not a minority population, powerless to do anything about the religious segregation that is already systemically enforced.

And why, in the first place, are there even Muslims who still choose to leave Islam, despite the increasingly rigid policies of cultural and political Islamisation over the years? The problem is far bigger and deeper than where the “Kalimah” is printed.

Honest answers to such questions demand serious self-criticism, namely on the flaws with which Islam has been represented and taught (and of course politicised) to Malays over the decades, where only conformity and blind obedience have been encouraged. The conversion fear is ironic, sadly, in how it only reflects the very weakness of its proponents.

The problem is that Muslims in this country have arrived to a point where the denial of Christians their most basic right is touted as pious. Nothing could possibly be lonelier than the poor soul who finds that convincing, who can only find authenticity in suppressing others – a truly desperate way to empowerment if there ever was one.

The issue has thus transcended far beyond the court case. It just might be that we have yet to see the worst of it. The “Kalimah Allah” controversy was recently described during a Friday sermon, scripted by Jakim no less, as a “perjuangan suci”. Millions of children were among the audience that day. – October 14, 2013.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.