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Don't 'rename God', Christian group tells Mais over BM Bible
Published:  Nov 18, 2017 11:49 AM
Updated: 7:58 AM

The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) has expressed that it is firmly opposed to the suggestion from the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) to have the Bible translated into Bahasa Malaysia by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka over the contentious use of the word “Allah.”

Mais lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla had made the suggestion yesterday, at the hearing of Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill’s suit against the government over the use of the word “Allah” in Christian literature.

“Mais’ attempt to deny the use of ‘Allah’ by Christians is already very upsetting to the Christian community, and going on to suggest that a government agency like DBP should translate the Holy Scriptures only adds insult to the injury,” NECF said in a statement today.

The group contends that the right to “pray in the name of their God” is protected under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution, which guarantees religious groups the right to manage their own affairs so long as they do not infringe on public order, public health and morality.

They also insist that BM-speaking Christians have been using the word for centuries.

“To now deny them the use of that word is not only an infringement of their rights under Article 11 of the Constitution, it also takes away the full spiritual identity of God from every prayer, every baptism and every sermon.

“Nobody and no party can dictate how Christians should call their God, in whatever language,” it said.

NECF also objected to DBP being the agency suggested by Mohamed Haniff to undertake the translation, since the language coordinators may not possess the necessary expertise.

“No one, including DBP, can rename the God of a particular religion for whatever reason or claim the right to translate the Holy Scriptures.

“The Holy Scriptures used by Christians must also be translated accurately, without loss, change or distortion of the meaning of the original text.

“The literary forms in the original text such as poetry, prophecy, narrative, exaltation, doctrines, beliefs, tenets of faith must be translated faithfully to the original historical and cultural context with understanding of the political, ideological, social, cultural and theological thinking at the time when those Scriptures were written or given,” said the group.

NECF believes that any translation of the Bible should best be left to Christian scholars, who not only have the authorisation of the church, but who also “believe in its inspiration.”

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