Christians banned from saying "Allah"?

If you saw it on Fox, it’s probably not true.

I had the TV on Fox and Friends

well there’s your problem.

Sounds like Fox News being… Fox News. Nothing to see there.

I’m pretty sure there isn’t some central agency of Christianity which puts forth broad decrees about what words we’re allowed tot say.

I’m not sure what other word Arabic-speaking Christians would use, since it means “God.”

Sounds, as the others have said, like your average, garden-variety Faux News breathless polemic.

Does anyone know what that was all about

FOX viewers believe Iraq attacked us on 9/11, GWB was a good president, and Palin would be gooder.

Draw your own conclusions.

http://maggiesnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/01/malaysian-christians-banned-from-saying.html

It looks like the story is about Malaysia, which is a predominantly Muslim country. I didn’t read the whole story, but it would seem that the Malaysian government recently issued a ruling to this effect.

Which is, to put it nicely, retarded because ‘Allah’ means God in several languages, Arabic chief among them

The news was that Malaysia passed allow saying that Christian churches COULD use the word “Allah” to refer to their Christian God. Muslims were upset and Christian churches were firebombed.

Actually, according to the network “Fox News”, the show “Fox and Friends” isn’t actually news. Here’s a clip of a fox reporter saying that, it’s within the Daily Show, about 20 or 30 seconds in.

Thank you @Mamradpivo and @6rant6 for the helpful answer. That’s all I really wanted to know. I admit to not being worldly enough to know which news stations tell the truth without a slant, and which ones are just making up lies and sending them out over the airways.
I watch F&F, and thought that it was terrorist Muslim extremists who attacked us on 9/11, but since I don’t speak any of the middle eastern languages, I have to take the word of others even now about that.
I guess I have it coming, so if anyone else wants to take a shot at me for watching F&F, go ahead, I won’t dodge.

I don’t know about the story but Arab christians say Allah for God. It just means God. It wouldn’t be natural or logical to say anything else.

@Trillian I thought terrorist Muslim extremists attacked us on 9/11 too. I was 7. ~

In all seriousness, though, I think Faux News is fine as long as there is no opinion involved in their stories. I have no issue with watching live coverage on Fox, it’s just when they end up going into discussion that I start to tune it out.

If it came across as a personal attack, it was not intended that way.

@Mamradpivo Jeez, did you watch the bull racist “Muslim Demographics” video on there in your link?

Allah is not a name, it’s a title, much like “God’ is. in fact, exactly the same.

in certain languages, Allah is the word for God. so, any Christian who spoke that language would be forbidden from saying God.

getting facts from Fox is like squeezing jelly from a stone.

Urgh. Guys, it really is true. This really is happening in Malaysia, and I keep on hearing about it in the news all the time. It’s getting stupid and the recent arsonist attacks on the churches are just making me sick. Personally, I think Malaysia sucks for many reasons but this just takes the cake.

They need to solve this themselves

@oratio Nope. I googled “Christians banned Allah” because I was curious, then posted the first link because I thought the story was interesting and it would answer
the question.

I certainly make no claim as to the authenticity of the blog I linked to, I’ve never been there before. Though now I’m curious and I’ll go back to watch the video. I hope nobody thinks I’m endorsing anything I’m not.

It was in German newspapers as well. Happened in Malaysia. Liberal Muslims do not support such as ridiculous decision. God and Allah are two words for the same entity.

@mattbrowne You are spot on.

Except for the RC church, there is not central authority that sets out new commandments and dictates for all Christians, although I’m sure there are several individuals or groups who might covet such power.

In every language there is a word used by believers for the one entity that is G_D.
To suppose that the Arabic term refers to something different from the French term, the Tagalog term, the Italian term and so on is silly!

To ban the use of the name in Arabic is foolish. Not all Arabs or Muslims are terrorists and their spoken tongue is not dangerous or evil. You can speak words of peace and love and respect and hope in any language.

I think it may help to try to understand the perspective of the extremists among Muslims.

I’m outside my area of expertise, so if anyone knows more and can correct me, I’ll appreciate it.

As I understand it, the word “Allah” is more than just a name. It is itself sacred. So the use of it in “profane” circumstances, such as in a Christian Church would become sacrilege. If you have trouble empathizing, think of the reaction to “Piss Christ,” the 1987 photographic work of art by Andres Serrano, and the center of religious/free speech controversy featuring Jesse Helms in the US. A lot of people found the work beyond offensive and many people voiced the opinion that the artist should be… well you name it. And the image of Christ is not the sacred icon that the word is in Arabic.

So I understand the sense of outrage some Muslims may feel at the co-optation of their sacred word. In no way do I think that justifies violence, and I’m sure most Muslims would concur. I’m happy to live in the US where religious orthodoxy takes a back seat to freedom. For the most part anyway. But maybe it will help to try to see the extremists side of it.

Here’s a Ghandi quote as way of apology for riding my high horse into dinner:

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

@6rant6 You said that “in the US where religious orthodoxy takes a back seat to freedom”.

You must be rather young and part of the religious majority.
You live in a time where religious orthodoxy is crushing the ever loving life out of the freedom of so many. Consider the worst extremes of the religious right and the teabaggers!

@Dr_Lawrence Well you pegged me exactly except I’m old, and not religious.

I would say that religion impinges on individual liberties, but I would hardly say that it’s “crushing the ever loving life out of the freedom of so many,” considering I was comparing the US to the rest of the world, as I was.

Americans use religion to mount arguments about sexual practices and education [shudder] but for the most part the voices of reason keep people from being locked up and executed over it. I would personally like to see less religion in our government but the long term trend here is hopeful. Where in the world do you see Less influence of majority on public policy?

In Canada. Our parties have much less connection with religion and religious orthodoxy. Religion minorities experience much less discrimination than they do in the USA.

Canada is by no means perfect. We are more multicultural and we are excessively polite!

@Dr_Lawrence Only one US party has connection with religious orthodoxy and even there it is contested. And I think “More multicultural” is a pretty bold assertion unless by multicultural you mean that different groups, religions and languages have sway in various parts of the country.

The USA has always favoured the melting pot approach that says when you come to America (legally of course) you speak english and are expected to adopt American customs, and try to fit in.
In Canada, we favour the cultural mosaic model that asserts that cultural diversity is encouraged and celebrated, as in “Tell me how your family does this, that or the other thing.”

We’re OK with people wearing their culturally relevant forms of dress, speaking their native language in public among themselves and where numbers permit, expecting government services delivered in their language.

One is no better than the other, just different.

@Dr_Lawrence I guess you don’t understand about the US. In some parts of the country tolerance is limited. in other parts, it’s “do whatever you want.” Much of the nation jokes about how California allows just about everything. But within California there are all extremes too. I live in San Diego County where there is a lot of conservative sentiment. And a lot of Latinos. And there are pockets of Russians, and Vietnamese and Guatemalans (to name a few) within 20 minutes of my house. There’s a Buhdist monastery almost within walking distance. Most of us embrace the differences, and to some extent, we embrace the bigots, too.

Canada may be a mosaic, but the US is fractal.

I have travelled extensively in the US including California.

California is quite unlike most of the rest of your terrific country. California is more cosmopolitan than most of the midwest and southern states.

Again its just an opinion based on my experiences. Your experience may be very different.

The whole West Coast is Cosmopolitan. And so are the Northeast, Florida, Chicago. Some people would say New Jersey and Texas too, but I’m not going to weigh in on that. I hear both ways about Atlanta, Kansas City, Ohio and Detroit.

Maybe it’s not a majority of the country, but it’s a good bunch more than Canada. Even our secessionists calls themselves Americans. Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and the like not withstanding, I think a lot of the country has open minded people.

@Dr_Lawrence – I actually thought Malaysia would be one of the more progressive Muslim countries.

@mattbrowne Hehe.. It seems to have taken a backslide recently.. Racial tensions are running higher than I’ve ever remembered. Which is just another thing to add on my “Dislike Malaysia” list.

Personally I’m wondering whether we’ll see racial riots anytime in the future

Oh, and I don’t know if you guys know this too, but the official reason given by the Malaysian government to prevent the use of the word “Allah” is to prevent other people from “being confused” and therefore converting from Islam, which is perhaps the stupidest reason I’ve ever from a government for a policy of theirs.

This might seem to be a religious issue at first glance, but looking at it closer it appears to be rather a political one. Christians in Malaysia and Indonesia have used the name Allah for centuries. This became an issue and the use of the word Allah was banned to be used by Christians in 2007, but was ruled unconstitutional.

This seems to originate with the UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) which has been sliding politically. It’s seems like a populist move to appeal to the majority by bashing a minority. Nothing new really. We’ve seen dirty politics before.

So, it appears it’s not really an expression of muslim intolerance per se, but a desperate move of a dominant party.

This is not an issue in most muslim countries, arab christian have no other word for it, as the name Allah is pre-islamic.

@oratio, you rock. Great answer!

What would be most interesting would be to get some responses from Christian citizens who speak Arabic and live in the middle east. I asked a question a long while back wondering if the American media always using Allah, even when completely translating the rest of a statement to English encourages people to think Allah is not the same God as the other Abrahamic religions (I know we have fought about that too). Here is the link if you are interested http://www.fluther.com/disc/48528/does-anyone-else-find-it-odd-that-the-media-will-translate/ To me it simply seems to be the Arabic word for God.