By Ida Lim
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 26 In a fresh debate over the word Allah, PAS says that Christians should not use it to describe their god in the Bible, while its political ally DAP insists that Christians in East Malaysia should be allowed to use the Arabic word.
PAS information chief Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said today the use of the word Allah in the Alkitab, the Malay-language translation of the Bible, would not reflect the original texts meaning.
PAS stand is that the Bahasa Melayu Bible should replace the God term with Tuhan and not Allah to mirror the actual meaning of the original text, he said in a press statement.
Tuan Ibrahim said both Christians and Muslims could be confused when the word Allah is used in the Alkitab.
Since the Bahasa Melayu Bible is a translation from the original English text, the term God does not mean Allah, because the accurate translation is Tuhan. It should be translated according to original meaning. Translating God to Allah will confuse Christians and create unease among the Muslims and can confuse Muslims, he said.
He said Allah was a sacred name for the Muslims and should be used appropriately.
In relation to that, (the) request to use Allahs name in the Bahasa Melayu translation of the Bible is not wajar (suitable), even the society in the West, they dont use Allahs name to refer to God whether in speech, writing of films. The word that is often used is Lord, said Tuan Ibrahim, who is also Pahang PAS commissioner.
On Monday, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had raised the controversial Allah issue in his Christmas message.
For this reason, DAP urges the BN Federal government to allow the use of the word Allah on the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible as has been allowed in Sabah and Sarawak for the last 50 years and practised in the Middle East for more than a thousand years, Lim wrote in a statement on December 24 in English and Mandarin.
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DAP, PAS send mixed messages on ‘Allah’ issue