I got this funny term from Facebook, by Gallivantings of Daniel Franklin. It is just like how Prince called himself at one time. Prince the artist called himself “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince” and I think that is quite unique. So much attitude, don’t you think so?
So, my God is now known as The God formerly known as Allah and my God will continue to be known as such until the court case is over. I think the case will go on for an eternity and so, my God will always be The God formerly known as Allah in Malaysia as it is now and ever shall be.
It is really confusing. I tried to recall the number of times The Herald came under the spotlight. If I remember correctly, they were first warned for not sticking to agama. That was before the General Election in March 2008. The Herald, in doing it’s community service and serving God, urged us Catholics to vote wisely. They never asked us to vote for which party.
But our ruling parties probably feel pissed that the photos showed the gigantic ceramahs attended by tens of thousands of people from the opposition parties. So, they began by biting on The Herald’s tail with that warning.
Then, came the time when The Herald needs to renew their publishing license and it was deemed a good opportunity to strangle them a bit by asking them to stop publishing in Bahasa Malaysia. Then, the Allah ban. If that’s not enough, came the idea of ‘Let’s put The God formerly known as Allah’ into ISA by prohibiting The God formerly known as Allah’s faithful followers from using it.
You know, I never claim to be very passionate about the use of Allah – or not. I have not use it extensively and hence, I won’t be the hypocrite to champion the issue. I shall leave it to the court and I know the matter is in the good hands of our Archbishop and his team of lawyers.
But I am very adamant in making sure that no one dictates to us to take away the term Allah in the AlKitab. It has been there and politicians or anyone else must not find excuses to take that away.
Today, DAP VP Tuanku Abdul Aziz said something interesting on Malaysiakini :
Sehubungan itu, katanya, DAP merasakan tidak adil bagi Zahid Hamidi untuk memaksa negeri-negeri mewartakan larangan itu tanpa mempedulikan keputusan mahkamah.
“Kita juga berharap Zahid Hamidi dan para pemimpin Umno tidak menggunakan isu sensitif ini semata-mata untuk tujuan merebut jawatan dalam pertandingan parti pada akhir bulan Mac ini.
“Mereka harus bertanggungjawab terhadap keharmonian negara dan hak asasi rakyat di Malaysia.
“Yang penting untuk kita ialah menerima hakikat bahawa Malaysia adalah negara di mana kita berkongsi hidup dan tidak ada sesiapa pun patut menganggap dirinya lebih tinggi darjat atau kedudukan dari orang lain,” tegasnya.
Thank God that The God formerly known as Allah is not an angry God. He probably is amused with the amount of attention paid to Him over a name. He probably does not care if you call Him The God formerly known as Allah because what is important to Him is to see that His faithful Catholic followers know Him well. And if the shepherd of the flocks aka the Archbishop decided that it is good to claim back the original name and not the long extension of The God formerly knonw as Allah, then, we shall prayerfully stand by our shepherd. Catholics ought to remember that we are the flocks and Jesus has said (to His Disciples and our Archbishop IS the line of disciples),
Acts 20:28-30
28Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.[a] Be shepherds of the church of God,[b] which he bought with his own blood. 29I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them
So, are you one of them mentioned in Acts 20:30?
Leave a Reply