To Understand Truth and to Attain the True
Kitab Salat as-Sawai (1514) was the First Printed Arabic (Not Jawi Malay) Book The Error In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that the earliest Malay printed prayer book was the Kitab Salat as-Sawai which was printed in 1514. I was wrong. Why?
Read more...Refutation of Muslim Scholars’Arguments in the Allah Controversy. Part 3/3 Translation Issues To buttress their case, Mohd Sani and Mohd Aizam provide several examples which allege that Christians are inconsistent in their usage of the word Allâh and this results in confusion for both Christians and Muslims. However, their claim of inconsistency shows little understanding [...]
Read more...Refutation of Muslim Scholars’ Arguments in the Allah Controversy. Part 2/3 Allâh is Certainly Not a Proper Noun/Personal Name Introduction: Allâh and Other Loan Words in the Quran for God The fundamental and contested presupposition in the present dispute on the use of Allâh is whether there are words so exclusively defined by a single [...]
Read more...Refutation of Muslim Scholars’ Arguments in the Allah Controversy. Part 1/3 (Part One of Three Parts) The Court of Appeal may appear tardy in taking up its review of the High Court decision that ruled in favour of the Catholic Herald (and Christians) concerning the right to use the word Allah. However, the government has [...]
Read more...Allah or Tuhan in the Rukun Negara? – A Separate Issue from Allah in the Alkitab Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang was reported by Bernama (22 March, 2010) to have called on the government during a debate in the Dewan Rakyat, to amend the first Rukun Negara from belief in God to belief [...]
Read more...Allah Word: Facts and Time-line “Why do you want to fight the Malaysian government over the use of the word Allah?” This question crops up now and then in our discussion groups. The inquirer may be well intentioned, but he is obviously ill-informed. The best answer to this question is to present the facts of [...]
Read more...Christian-Muslim Dialogue: Building a Common Society Published in Christianity Today LINK I wrote this article as a response to Chawkat Moucarry, “A Lifelong Journey with Islam.” LINK You may note the other responses by David W. Shenk, Evelyne A. Reisacher and Sunday Agang. These articles are part of the collaborative project between Christianity Today and [...]
Read more...Sacred Language and Vernacular Translation of Scriptures: Why Some Muslims Just Cannot Understand/Accept the Use of “Allah” in the Alkitab (Bahasa Bible) I. Sacred Language and Religion of Diffusion Some Muslim activists have repeatedly charged Christians for having ulterior motives when they use the word “Allah” which include attempting to “deislamize Malay language” and to [...]
Read more...Foreign Vocabulary and Loan Words in the Quran: Historical Facts One repeated assertion by Muslim scholars defending the government’s ban on the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Christians is that Quranic Arabic is the ‘purest’ and most appropriate language of divine revelation. As such, Christians are not allowed to use the word ‘Allah’ on [...]
Read more...High Court Judgment: Home Minister Wrong in Four Crucial Areas The High Court ruling on the Allah controversy on 31 Dec 2009 by the learned judge Lau Bee Lan is a model of acute and coherent reasoning. The learned judge 57-page judgment found the government wrong in four crucial areas : 1) The Home Minister’s [...]
Read more...Dr. Ng Kam Weng
Research Director
Kairos Research Centre
FREE ACCESS TO KAIROS LEGAL HANDBOOK
Kairos has decided to make available online - with free access - the full text of our legal handbook, Doing the Right Thing. Our hope is that the book will help readers to gain confidence to defend their right to profess, practice and propagate their religion and to remain vigilant in defending their religious rights.