The issue with the word Allah

Fine, so translate Allah to English, it means GOD. I googled up and it shows that non muslims Arab use Allah to refer to God. So the issue now in Malaysia is that the Christian Herald wants to use the word Allah for the publication of their news in Malay. And many Muslims disagree with this despite the recent judge's decision in allowing the Herald to use the word Allah. There will be an appeal on this decision. This is what i think of this all issue :

1. The Christian Herald claims that they want to use the word Allah because their Malay version of the scriptures used the word Allah ( i read this from an online article in Malaysian Insider) : He explained that the Catholic Church had been using the word in the manner prescribed because it was contained in the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Scriptures, which had been approved by the church's authorities "a long time ago". So one can only BLAME the "GENIUS" who allowed the word Allah to be used when the Malay version of the scripture was published. 10 years ago, when i was 13 years old, i just simply read a bible of my friend's, which was in the Malay version. They referred to God as Allah and i was surprised by this. You know why am i surprised? Coz when you talk to a Christian, they never refer to God as Allah, it's only GOD or TUHAN. Even if you talk to a Christian in Malay, they never use Allah, just Tuhan. So why wasn't this an issue 10 years ago? On this arguement, you can't blame them if they want to use the word Allah.

2. However, if they want to translate the teachings of Christianity into Malay, why use Allah? Allah is an Arabic term. Malays use TUHAN to describe God. Suddenly the Christian religious authorities have a thing for Arabic terms? If so, why don't they use Allah in the English version of their bibles?

3. The funny thing is, even if this word Allah is allowed to be used by the Christians, it won't cause confusion among the Muslims. Personally, i think it would cause greater confusions among the Christians. English speaking Christians definitely don't use the word Allah while the Malay speaking Christians (probably a lot of them in East Malaysia) use Allah. So if these two were to meet, one will be referring to Allah and the other God. Who's the confused one now? In Malaysia, we are soooooo used to the word Allah being used among Muslims and in MALAYSIA that when one says Allah, we think Islam, ONE God ---> this is probably what the Christian who use the word GOD ALSO thinks. Ask any Hindu or Buddist who is Allah, they will say the God in Islam. Do u actually think a Christian would call their God Allah? None of my Christian friends EVER refer to their God as Allah. Ask them to say it, they will feel one kind - it will be like admitting your God is the God in Islam (because they know that's what Muslims call their God).

4. To some of my Christian friends out there, the Muslims are simply suspicious that why all of a sudden the Herald wants to use the term Allah. Perhaps the Herald have a bad motive or perhaps no motive at all. Being a law student, i've learnt that MOTIVE is VERY HARD to PROOF. I believe that the term Allah can be use by the Herald because it generally refers to God in Arabic. But their (Herald) argument is that they want to translate the scriptures in Malay, so my question is so why don't use TUHAN? Any Malaysians would know what TUHAN means but not all Malaysians know what Allah means because it's Arabic and only used by Malays because their religion is Islam and the Quran in in Arabic. You ask any non muslims in Malaysia who is Allah and most will say "isn't that the God that Muslims pray to?". Ask a Christian "Do you believe in Allah?" they will think twice before answering it compare to answering instantly to a question like "Do you believe in God?"

Another question that i would like to ask, when lonng long time ago the Christian religious authorities in Malaysia decide to translate the bible into Malay version, why use Allah instead of TUHAN? At that point of time, when u decide to use the word Allah, you know very well the term is used by Muslims to refer to their God in Islam but yet you use it.

P/S : Initially i didn't want to blog about this but when i came across several comments on this issue, some of the comments pisses me off - especially those who think that the Muslims in Malaysia are making a BIG deal out of a small matter (which i do agree this is just a small matter which can be resolve easily). It pisses me off that some comments think that there is some political agenda (which i don't see any?) or the fact that the Muslims Malaysians are being GREEDY in not wanting to share the word Allah with other religions. The thing is, we are simply SUSPICIOUS. For example, i always wear GUESS handbags, always, for years and years. And i have a close friend who knows im a Guess handbags freak but she never buys one. then one day, in that many many years, she decides to buy the same guess handbag that i buy (there are soo many freaking kind of guess handbags but yet she wants to buy the SAME ONE like me!). Besides being PISSED OFF, of course i'll be suspicious, i would be thinking "Is the bitch trying to imitate me?", "Is your motive to PROVOKE me into bitch slapping you?". Okay, i know thats a lousy example but you get the drift.