Everyone and their aunties are talking about this. All kinds of opinions have surfaced - some rational, some bordering on lunacy. Knickers, y-fronts, boxers are twisted and knotted beyond recognition over this issue.
Yea...you've certainly got our attention! And many folks are still foaming at the mouths.
From my foray into the world of tafseer [interpretation] al-Quran and seerah [biography], I gleaned that "Allah" was used by the pagans of old. These pagans believed that there was this higher being that governed over them. But they also believed that they needed intermediaries to speak on their behalf. So they adopted and prostrated before their chosen deities.
On the other hand, there were also those who believed that they themselves were God - Firaun for one. Yet even he knew he was powerless to a certain extent. At the very end of his life, he did try to submit to Moses' God...but we all know what happened.
As for the Christians, we know that the original Bible is long gone partly because of politics. The church would lose its power over the people if the people believed they didn't need the church to intervene on their behalf with God. Hence, Jesus [pbup] was upgraded to "divine" status and became the Son of God. To this day, the Dead Sea Scrolls remained under lock and key with the Ecole Biblique - and I strongly doubt if the general public will ever be apprised of its contents till the end of time as the stuff revealed in those scrolls would prove the Quran correct. I read a book on this but I've forgotten the author's name...alas!
Same for the Roman Empire and its king [Constantine] then. In order for Christianity to be palatable to the pagan Romans of that time, it had to include some of the hardcore beliefs of its people - one of which is 25 December, the time when the pagans celebrated its midwinter festivals. Constantine knew that if he were to order his people to fully adopt the Christian faith as mooted in the original Bible, then he'd have to say farewell to his throne. So 25 December was written into the Christian faith and hailed as the birthday of Jesus Christ although no date was given in the original Bible.
The Arab Christians use "Allah" in this way: Allah al-Ab for God, the Father, Allah al-Ibn for God, the Son, and Allah al-Ruhul al-Quddus for God, the Holy Spirit - since the word "Allah" does not mean One God to them. I figure it's all hunky dory to the Arabs as they all speak and understand Arabic so there's no confusion.
Lets go to the Malaysian scenario. Since Islam first touched our shores, it's predominantly the Malays who took up this faith. And kept at it even when we were ruled by non-Muslims. Efforts were made to convert the Malay Muslims to Christianity since the days of the Portuguese rule but it didn't make a dent - there were zero conversions for a long, long time. So the Christian powers that be decided that perhaps they would be more successful if they had a Malay Bible - the Malays, largely, didn't speak English during those times. Hence, the birth of the first Malay Bible in the 1700s [Romanised version] and 1800s [Jawi version]. However, the Christian missionaries were still stumped as the Malays didn't budge from Islam.
I really don't know how it is that the folks in Sabah and Sarawak came to adopt the Malay Bible. If I were to hazard a guess it would be because English is a complex language as compared to Malay, so it was far easier to teach the folks there in a language they are already familiar with. We all know how easy it is for immigrants to pick up Malay - the Banglas and Nepalese could do it within a few short months of their stay here. At least enough to be understood!
The situation in Malaysia is unique in that only the Muslims [at least the ones in West Malaysia] use "Allah" to denote their God. I remember the times when the Chinese and Indians would use the term "Tuan Alah" when they mean the Muslims' God. It has been this way for the longest time....and respected by the people of other faiths. The fact that it is used by the Christians in Sabah and Sarawak for the last few hundred years isn't a well known fact for the majority of Muslims in Malaysia....until the "Allah" issue was brought to the courts.
Hence, the hue and cry! The majority of the Malay Muslims feel that this term describes only their God. That's what they have been exposed to all their lives. So they get understandably upset/enraged when another faith wants to use that sacred term in their book. On the theological front, it's obvious that the Christian God and the Muslim God isn't the same. So the Malay Muslims here feel that it's blasphemous if the Christians use it.
Also the fact that the Christians have never stopped attempting to convert the Malay Muslims to Christianity - despite their claims otherwise. It's obvious that they have been somewhat successful too - there are more than 200,000 Malay converts in 2011 according to the, then, Mufti Perak.
I can only surmise that the fact that the Christians here want to use the term "Allah" is born of mischief. I can imagine this scenario: when excerpts from the Malay Bible is handed out to little children who may or may not show it to their parents; what will happen then? Because the term "Allah" is used, they may regard it as Islamic doctrine....and they're too young to know the difference. Nauzubillah....although I believe this is already a practise here. If the entire Malay Bible is handed out, even kids would know it's not the Quran because of the distinctive cross. But would the Christian missionaries be that honourable?
Herein lies our objection.......
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