By Ling Hui
KUCHING, March 15: The words ‘Allah’, ‘God’ and ‘Buddha’ belong to everybody because everyone in Sarawak is free to worship their own gods and practice their chosen religions, be it Islam, Christianity or Buddhism.
This is the view of Sarawak Association for People’s Aspirations (Sapa) president Dominique Ng when he disagreed with this woman who in her Facebook live session claimed that using “Allah” is the exclusive right for Muslims only.
“There is no such thing as ‘Allah’ only belonging to certain people of certain beliefs. We all practice freedom of worship because Malaysia is based upon freedom of religion,” he asserted.
Adding on, he said the opinions raised by the woman who called herself “Puteri” reflected extremism that is happening in Peninsular Malaysia which is not desired in the lands of Sarawak.
He continued to stress that Sarawakians are different from how some Malayans (West Malaysians) feel towards religion as all religions in the state co-exist peacefully.
Finding her remarks to be a threat to all religions other than Christian, Ng said it is not tolerable and such practices against free religion are not the beliefs of Sarawakians.
“First of all, I wish to state that I am a Buddhist by religion and even though the contents of the video clip is only against Christians, I felt that even believers of other religions will be threatened.
“No doubt, the issue that caused her anger was the word ‘Allah’ that can be used by Christians, and this issue affects Sarawakians’ beliefs, which is the freedom of religion,” he said during a press conference at Kota Sentosa police station here today.
He, together with about 10 other affiliates of a civil movement named Bulang Movement were there to lodge individual police reports against this “Puteri” whose views they deemed to be extreme.
In the almost 13-minute live session on March 11, “Puteri” claimed to the disappointed with the High Court’s decision to allow the use of word “Allah” in Christian Bibles and prayers.
Kuala Lumpur High Court had on March 10 ruled that the non-Muslim community may use the word “Allah” in their preaching and publications.
The High Court said the community can also use the words “Baitullah”, “Kaabah” and “solat” for teaching purposes which the Malaysian government has banned for 35 years. — DayakDaily
