East Malaysia Christians refuse to use ‘Yahweh’

The Malaysian government is attempting to convince Malaysian Christians to use the word “Yahweh” for God instead of “Allah”.

Cabinet minister Datuk Seri Idris Jala is heading the Barisan Nasional (BN) government’s efforts to convince Christians to use the word “Yahweh” instead of “Allah” in Malay, but he is facing stiff resistance from within his own church, the Malaysian Insider reports.

Putrajaya has dispatched special envoys - including Jala, a Christian - to parley with his community and seek a peaceful end to the “Allah” court dispute, amid Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s overtures to world leaders urging pragmatism in dealing with extremists.

The Malaysian Insider understands, however, that the move at home may have caused a rift within the Christian community - in particular Jala’s own Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) church - with the English-speaking, urban and middle-class members on one side and the poorer, rural churchgoers who mainly use Bahasa Malaysia in their worship, on the other.

Sources disclosed that the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) had last month tried to sway his SIBKL church mates to adopt a less hard-line approach in what word to call their God.

“Idris Jala said he’s willing to use ‘Yahweh’ instead of ‘Allah’,” recounted a man who had attended the three-day church conference from August 26 to 28 with Idris.

“He made quite a few people there unhappy with his statement,” observed the man who requested anonymity as he was a church leader and considered Jala a friend.

“But he added that it was just his personal opinion,” the stout man said.

“Actually, Idris, he’s not a politician. He’s only a man doing his work. He is genuine… he has the heart for the country, but [there are] a lot of ‘hanky-panky people’ around him,” the man added, in defence of the Sarawakian pastor’s son.

Malaysia’s churches have been fighting a protracted court battle with the ruling BN government for the right to use the word “Allah” to refer to God in Christian worship.

The Catholic Church won its bid on December 31 last year while two other suits filed separately by the SIB Sabah church and by a young Sarawakian SIB member, Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, are still pending.

SIC: CTH/ASIA