I swear to the many alliterations of God, I (a proud godless atheist) will keep this one short. I just wish to question the claims of the self-anointed keepers of the Muslim faith in Malaysia and take it to their own logical conclusion. Specifically the 2 claims (which I have enjoined) that:
Christians using the word Allah will confuse Malay speaking Muslims and also that this is done specifically to convert them.
Ok, can these assertions be tested? Why not? The word Allah has now been used by Malay speaking Christian natives in Sabah and Sarawak for over 100 years, and even longer in Indonesia (but I know nothing about the Indonesians so I'll keep out of that).
Thus, we should have over 100 years of evidence to work with. Shall we proceed? Just two simple questions.
1. How many Malay speaking Muslims in Sabah and Sarawak have been confused and converted to Christianity due to the Christians' use of the word Allah? And remember we are including in this many years of British rule where the self-anointed guardians of Islam would have had to play a subservient role to the Anglican denominated British Christians.
Thousands, hundreds, zero? Answers on a postcard please. Certainly even the greatest guardians of the faith will have to admit the number approaches zero.
2. In this same period of time how many Malay speaking Christian natives in Sabah and Sarawak who had used Allah to describe God in their Bible been converted to Islam?
Just thousands, tens of thousands, or perhaps even more?
I posit to you that in this period, the use of the term Allah in the Malay language Bible has coincided not with the mass conversion of Malay speaking Muslims to Christianity, but indeed the not insignificant (though admittedly not mass) conversion of Malay speaking Christian natives to Islam in Sabah and Sarawak.
Perhaps the government should further encourage the word Allah to be used in bibles? Seems a great way to spread the word of Islam among Malay speaking Christian natives of Sabah and Sarawak if you ask me.
Christians, on the other hand should thank the benevolent government of Malaysia for forcing them to use the word Tuhan instead. Now no longer will you be confused and converted to Islam....
But hey, what does an atheist know anyway?
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