Malaysian Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has said that his predecessor should not have banned the word “Allah” from use by Christians but the country’s Minister for Islamic Affairs is adamant that the government should not rescind the ban. The decision to ban the use of “Allah” will continue to haunt his ministry “for a very long time,” Hishammuddin added, The Malaysian Insider reports.
“In this ministry, it is a zero-sum game. We are [now] in an uncharted landscape which will haunt us for a very long time.
“We should have let the sleeping dogs lie. It was triggered by those that believed that the word ‘Allah’ should not be used in Sabah and Sarawak,” he said during the Fourth Annual Malaysian Student Leaders Summit here.
Former home minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar had imposed the word ban on the Catholic newspaper, The Herald, two years ago.
However, Minister for Islamic Affairs Senator Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom insisted that the issue should be settled through the proper legal process.
“We are currently waiting for the court to decide on its position because we don’t know want many public perceptions which will make it hard for us to make a proper evaluation and consistent in our explanation. So we are waiting for the court to settle the issue,” Jamil Khir told reporters, the Insider says
However, Father Lawrence Andrew, the editor of The Herald, welcomed Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s comments.
“I’m very delighted he said that,” Lawrence told The Malaysian Insider, adding he viewed the home minister’s remark “positively”.
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