"No matter what, I will go. There's no turning back," said Angeline Lee from Kuala Lumpur.

The 52-year-old told UCA News that she is not dropping her plans to go to Singapore but will take precautions, such as wearing a mask in public spaces and staying hydrated.

Singapore's health ministry said in a bulletin on Aug. 22 that "13 confirmed cases of mpox have been detected this year, all of which are of the less severe Clade II infections."

"There have been no mpox Clade I cases detected in Singapore to date," the ministry added.

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"It is the pluralism of cultures and ethnic groups that makes Malaysia a 'miniature Asia'" the cardinal says.

"The coexistence of different components allows the Catholic community to experience the interaction of differences that takes place in diversity" says Francis, who is the bishop of Penang.

Malaysia's cultural and religious diversity is "reasonably healthy" he says.

"The Malays are protected and are only Muslims, as enshrined in the Constitution. But a democratic nation like ours cannot today choose to be completely monocultural or monoreligious.

"Our country is characterised by an interesting pluralism that makes it a truly Asian country, a microcosm in which one can experience the constituent dimension of Asia."

Ethnic mix

Ethnic Malays make up about 60 percent of Malaysia's estimated 34 million people.

About 24 percent are Chinese, seven percent are Indians and ten percent are indigenous non-Malay communities.

The ten percent Christian Malaysians are based mostly in Sarawak and Sabah.

Synodality and diversity

"Synodality" and "dialogue" are keys to overcoming differences, the cardinal says. They are also key to forming a society based on the richness of diversity.

Francis says despite ethnic and cultural differences within Catholic communities in Malaysia, the Church is always available to serve everyone.

As an example, the Church there celebrates the liturgy in four official languages. Traditions from diverse Catholic immigrant groups add to the varied mix.

Pastoral opportunities

The cardinal says that, although Catholics are a minority, the Church has the resources for pastoral life.

Missionary religious orders compensate for Malaysia's paucity of priestly and religious vocations.

Faith formation and empowering the laity are important, Francis says.

"We care about the Christian life of the laity and after the Second Vatican Council we have emphasised the formation of the laity, especially through training courses or continuing education events in the parishes."

Political change in Malaysia has however had negative impacts on the Church's mission.

"Our influence in the field of education has decreased enormously because the Government has taken control of education in public schools, both state and private" says the cardinal.

"If we want to be present in the field of education, we must act as private actors, but the Government also controls private education, decides on the curricula and pays teachers their salaries.

"We own the real estate and the land on which the schools are built, but it is the Government that controls school life.

"So technically we own the buildings but not the system. We contribute, but we cannot give concrete shape to the education system."

Source

• UCA News

"We are trying to reduce [the number of] foreign workers in the workforce besides giving priority to locals to secure jobs," Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan told a newspaper.

The move is expected to worsen the economic prospects of migrant workers from Bangladesh, Myanmar and elsewhere.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, an estimated two million foreigners worked in Malaysia, according to official figures, although observers say the actual number could be double that as many migrant workers are employed illegally. Read more

The Asian country's decision is winning praise and adds further momentum to a growing global trend that human rights advocates hope will spell an end to state-sanctioned killing. Read more

The new Malaysian government is taking tentative steps to curb abusive and obtrusive so-called moral policing some hard-line Islam followers favour. Read more

Lawyers and activists say the women, aged 22 and 32, were seated on stools facing the judges and given six strokes from a light rattan cane on their backs by female prison officers.

More than 100 people witnessed the caning. Read more

Ulil Abshar Abdalla said the word predates Islam and is a general Arabic term used to refer to God.

Malaysia has declared the word "Allah" should only be used by Muslims, exclusively.

Ulil was denied entry into Malaysia earlier this month.

"The term ‘Allah' comes from two words which are ‘Al' ‘and ‘Ilah' which means God. . . . The people of Mecca also used the word ‘Allah' before Islam came," Ulil said in a recent interview.

Ulil's view of the "Allah" controversy echoes that of Muslim scholars and clerics, both in Malaysia and worldwide, who have criticised the ban of the use of the word among non-Muslims.

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The ruling upheld a lower court decision that banned The Herald from using then word, on the grounds that it would cause confusion in the community.

The Herald editor Fr Lawrence Andrew, SJ, explained that "Allah" is the Malay language word for God.

Fr Andrew said there is provision to review the ruling and that will be explored once the written decision is received.

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Hundreds of Muslims demonstrated outside the court shouting "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great".

They also held banners that read: "Want to use 'Allah', join Islam. Don't be ill-mannered".

They dispersed after the court hearing.

"Allah cannot be used by outsiders or Christians," said Rosli Ani, a representative of a Muslim NGO known as Per3.

"People now may know the difference, but our children will not know," she said.

Fr Lawrence Andrew, the editor of the Herald, which launched the case, said Christians across Malaysia were fasting and praying for a favourable verdict.

An appeals court in October barred the local Catholic newspaper from using "Allah" in its Malay-language edition, overturning a lower court's 2009 ruling in favour of the Church.

The Church argues "Allah" has been used for centuries in Malay-language Bibles and other literature to refer to "God" outside of Islam.

But authorities say using "Allah" in non-Muslim literature could confuse Muslims and entice them to convert, a crime in Malaysia.

Hard line Malay rights spokesman Ibrahim Ali, who was with the protesters, said if the Federal Court verdict was not in favour of the Muslims, then it would jeopardise the nation.

Ibrahim added that should the Federal Court allow the appeal to proceed, then Malay NGOs would come here each day to support the "Malay cause".

Sources

• Channel News Asia
• Freemalaysiatoday
• Image: The Malay Mail Online

Malaysia's second highest court ruled in October that the Catholic newspaper, the Herald, could not use the word "Allah"to refer to God, in a landmark decision on an issue that has fanned religious tension in the majority Muslim country.

"Freedom of religion or belief is a right of human beings, not a right of the state," the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Mr Heiner Bielefeldt, said in statement.

"It cannot be the business of the state to shape or reshape religious traditions, nor can the state claim any binding authority in the interpretation of religious sources or in the definition of the tenets of faith," he said.

Meanwhile, Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, said the federal government and the home ministry should grant the Catholic Church the right to use the Arabic word to refer to their God.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Government of Malaysia should take necessary steps to secure immediately the right to freedom of opinion and expression of Herald - The Catholic Weekly and withdraw unconditionally from further litigation on this issue," the UN expert said in a press release issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

La Rue was backing Bielefeldt's call for the federal government to retract its decision, which was seen to limit the use of the word "Allah" to Muslims only - the country's largest religious community.

In warning of the court case's potential far-reaching impact on religious minorities in Malaysia, Bielefeldt also said that the government should not be dictating or interpreting on religious matters, stressing that freedom of religion belongs to individuals.

"It cannot be the business of the State to shape or reshape religious traditions, nor can the State claim any binding authority in the interpretation of religious sources or in the definition of the tenets of faith," he added.

Last month, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Ministry's decision to ban the use of the word in the Herald was justified, saying that the use of the word "Allah" was "not an integral part" of the practice of the Christian faith.

Rita Izsák, UN Independent Expert on minority issues, said the ban had effectively breached the local Christian community's freedom to practice their faith, expressing her concern that it could affect the interfaith relations here.

Sources

Reuters/Straits Times
The Malay Mail
Image: Reuters/The Malay Mail

In a message during the celebration of Maal Hijrah celebration, the Malaysian leader said that even as Malaysia upholds the Federal Constitution and the position of Islam as the country's official religion, it also holds strong to the concept of "Wasatiyyah" or moderation.

He reminded Muslims that the underlying message of the Maal Hijrah celebration, or the Islamic new year, is to command Muslims to embrace changes and move forward.

"It will produce Muslims who are always creative and innovative, who stay relevant in the current times and challenge the mainstream," he said in the message posted on his blog www.1malaysia.com.my

"To appreciate the broader meaning of migration, we still uphold our religion and defend the name of Allah for the sake of religion, race and our beloved country.

"Malaysia, which upholds the Constitution and Islam as the country's official religion, will remain steadfast to defending the position of Islam in the country based on Maqasid Syariah and the prudent concept of Wasatiyyah," he added.

Malaysians have been embroiled in a major tug-of-war battle over the word "Allah", the Arabic translation to "God" that many Muslim groups here insist belongs exclusively to those of the Islamic faith.

But Christians and other non-Muslim religious followers here have argued otherwise, a position that Malaysia's Muslim-majority government disagreed with, and which later led to a dispute that led saw Catholic weekly The Herald hauled to court in 2009 for a long drawn out legal battle over the word.

The battle came to a head early last month when the Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Ministry's decision to ban the use of the word in the Herald was justified, finding that the use of the word "Allah" was not integral to the practice of the Christian faith.

The ruling — which overturned an earlier High Court decision that the ban was unconstitutional — has since sparked confusion over the use of the Middle Eastern word by Christians in their worship, especially with conflicting opinions within the government itself on how far the ruling would affect practising Christians.

Source

Herald Malaysia

Image: Herald Malaysia

The Court of Appeal decision was specifically against a Catholic newspaper, the Malaysia Herald, which intends to lodge an appeal.

Malaysia's leading Catholic bishop, Archbishop Murphy Pakiam of Kuala Lumpur, said Catholics will continue to refer to God as Allah, as they have done since the 17th century.

The controversy over the use of Allah began when government authorities threatened to take away the Herald's publishing licence because it used the word in its Malay-language edition.

The newspaper won a lower court decision, but angry Muslims attacked churches and began pressing the government to enforce a ban on the use of Allah by non-Muslims.

The editor of the Herald, Father Lawrence Andrew, described the latest decision as "a violation of our rights". He said Christian communities in neighbouring Muslim countries like Indonesia and Brunei are allowed to use the word Allah for God, as are Christians in the Middle East.

The chief judge in the appeal court, Apandi Mohamed Ali, said: "The usage of the word Allah is not an integral part of the faith in Christianity. The usage of the word will cause confusion in the community."

Malaysia's population is 60 per cent Muslim, 19 per cent Buddhist, 6 per cent Hindu, 6 per cent Protestant and 3 per cent Catholic.

The controversy over Allah has prompted the non-Muslim religions to form a council to safeguard their religious freedom.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Agricultural Development in the Malaysian state of Sarawak — one of the territories that make up the Malaysian part of Borneo Island — has described the court decision as "not authentic" and announced that Christians in the area can continue to use Allah to define their God.

Sources:

Radio Australia

AsiaNews

Herald Malaysia Online

Image: RT.com

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal ruled that the government's efforts to ban the use of the word in Christian publications will continue.

The case dates back to a dispute over the re-registration of the Herald's publishing license, following criticism from the Home Ministry over political articles that appeared in its pages.

In 2009, the local language edition received an injunction to cease publication. The Herald and the archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur successfully sued for the right to continue, but the government then lodged an appeal against the ruling, which stated that Muslims did not have exclusive ownership of the word Allah.

The court ruling spurred acts of vandalism against Christian churches and death threats against the presiding judge in the case, Lau Been Lan.

"Allah" is the Arabic word for God and is commonly used in the Malay language to refer to God.

The government, however, insists "Allah" is an Islamic word and that its use by others would confuse Muslims.

SOURCES

UCA News

AP/ABC News

AP/The New York Times

Image: AFP/UCA News

Syed Hassan Syed Ali, secretary-general of the group Perkasa, said the planned rally was in support of the Home Ministry in its efforts to prohibit non-Muslims from referring to God as "Allah" in print materials.

"The Court of Appeal's decision in this case is very important to Muslims," Syed Hassan said in a statement quoted in The Malay Mail Online.

Perkasa, a vocal Malay rights lobby, has some 407,000 members throughout Malaysia, according to the group's acting president Datuk Abd Rahman Abu Bakar.

Perkasa's remarks came after Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said last Saturday that the Arabic word "Allah" is exclusive to Muslims, and that non-Muslims must stop challenging this "absolute right".

Zahid also urged Muslim groups to unite and defend against what he seemed to view as an attempt by non-believers to undermine the country's predominant religion.

Sources

Al Arabiya

The Malay Mail

Image: AFP/Al Arabiya

Archbishop Joseph Marino, the first nuncio appointed to the Muslim-majority nation, said during a press conference that he supported the arguments in a fact sheet put out by the Christian Federation of Malaysia on why Christians should be allowed to use "Allah".

This drew an immediate reaction from conservative Muslim groups, which demanded he withdraw the statement or they would ask the government to close the nunciature and tell Archbishop Marino to leave the country.

Muslims (61 per cent of the population) and Christians (9 per cent) have largely lived in harmony in Malaysia, but the Allah issue has raised tensions.

In 2008 a government order banned the weekly Catholic Herald from using Allah as a translation for God in its Malay-language section.

Archbishop Murphy Pakiam sued the government and a court overturned the ban — a decision that shocked Muslims and led to religious strife, with churches throughout the country coming under attack.

The government appealed to the High Court, and the Catholic Church has filed an application to strike out the appeal.

The Church's argument will recall that in 2011, just before the Sarawak state elections — and apparently with an eye to the Christian vote in that state, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak issued a statement allowing Catholics to import Malay-language Bibles using Allah for God.

Archbishop Marino is no stranger to living in a Muslim majority country. Prior to being posted to Malaysia, he was the papal nuncio in Bangladesh for five years.

"The first thing I came to learn was the beauty of Islam, and it is indeed a religion of peace and harmony," he said. "Its spiritual components of seeking God are profound. That was the joy that I have, if I may say, with my deep contact with Islam in a country that is predominantly Muslim."

Sources:

Wall Street Journal

Malaysian Insider

Image: Malaysia Today

Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, head of the Malaysian bishops' conference, told Vatican-based Fides news that the country will soon be in "a police state" if authorities continue demanding such "bureaucratic requirements."

"The Government knows our views and it also knows of the work that the Church does to assist asylum seekers both in detention and after their release." Bishop Gerard Hanna, the Bishops' Representative for Migrants and Refugees, said today.

On Wednesday, Australia's High Court voted 6-1 in a decision which put and end to the Government's people swap deal with Malaysia.

The court said the people swap solution was illegal because people's rights were not adequately protected.

Promising to take a good look at the decision, a disappointed Australian Prime Minister, Julia Guillard said, "nothing in it is going to deminish our resolved to break the people smuggler's business model."

An embarrassed Australian Labor government may now have to fall back on the previous Coalition government's agreement with Papua New Guinea and restart processing asylum seekers on Manus Island.

Professor of law at the Public Policy Institute Australian Catholic University and adjunct professor at the College of Law and the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University, Fr Frank Brennan SJ expressed surprise at what he called a "drubbing" for the government.

In his column "The Meddling Priest" Brennan outlines the implications of the decision

• the government will have to process boat people onshore in Australia unless they are certain that they can line up a processing country which provides appropriate access and protections 'as a matter of legal obligation' either under international law or under the domestic law of the country
• the government can no longer rely on the general power to remove an alien when wanting to remove from Australia someone who is seeking asylum
• the government will be able to remove asylum seekers prior to the determination of an asylum claim only to a country which is legally obliged to process the claim and to provide protection
• no Commonwealth official will be able to remove unaccompanied minors or other children of whom the Minister is the guardian without the consent in writing of the Minister.

The Australian and Malaysian governments signed their agreement on 25 July 2011, agreeing that all asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat after that date would be turned around and sent to Malaysia within 72 hours. In return for 800 asylum seekers, Malaysia would offer Australia 4000 proven refugees for resettlement in Australia over the next four years.

Within hours of Wednesday's decision, refugees in Malaysia and Indonesia were predicting that a new wave of boats carry asylum seekers would soon head for Australia.

Sources

• SMH
• Eureka Street
• The Age
• CathNews Australia
• Image: Flickr

The announcement came after talks between the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak and Pope Benedic XVI.

"In the cordial conversations, the positive developments in bilateral relations were discussed, and an agreement was reached to establish diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the Holy See," the Vatican said in a statement.

Malaysia has around 28 million people and is the 179th country to have diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

9% of Malaysians are Christian, including 850,000 Catholics.

In recent years, religious minority groups, including Christians, have complained of discrimination by the country's Muslim majority and among the topics the Pope and Prime Minister discussed was the importance of cultural and religious dialogue for the promotion of justice and peace.

The Holy Father and Najib met at Castelgandolfo, the pope's summer residence.

Najib said Malaysia's goal is to promote international bonds of friendship to cultivate harmony.

"The world is at a crossroads, the forces of irrationality and discord are threatening our long-cherished and hard-gained stability and prosperity," Najib said in a statement issued through Malaysia's national news agency, Bernama.

Malaysia was one of fewer than 20 countries in the world that didn't have formal diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

Sources

• CNA
• Asia Pacific News
• ucanews.com
• Image: Urban Christian News