マレーシアにおけるAllahという言葉の使用を巡るムスリムとカトリックとの争い。
先ず、昨年末のロイターの記事；
上記の判決はマレーシア内務省の控訴を承けて、サスペンドされた。今度は今月７日付けのCNNの報道；
Malaysian court rules Catholic paper can use "Allah"Royce Cheah
KUALA LUMPUR
Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:57am EST
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian court ruled on Thursday that a Catholic newspaper can use "Allah" to describe God in a surprise judgment that could allay worries about the erosion of minority rights in the majority Muslim country.
World
The High Court said it was the constitutional right for the Catholic newspaper, the Herald, to use the word "Allah."
"Even though Islam is the federal religion, it does not empower the respondents to prohibit the use of the word," said High Court judge Lau Bee Lan.
Last January, Malaysia banned the use of the word "Allah" by Christians, saying the use of the Arabic word might offend the sensitivities of Muslims who make up 60 per cent of Malaysia's 28 million population.
Analysts say cases such as that involving the Herald worry Malaysian Muslim activists and officials who see using the word Allah in Christian publications including bibles as attempts to proselytize.
The Herald circulates in Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo Island where most tribal people converted to Christianity more than a century ago.
In February, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Murphy Pakiam, as publisher of the Herald, filed for a judicial review, naming the Home Ministry and the government as respondents.
He had sought to declare that the decision by the respondents prohibiting him from using the word "Allah" in the Herald was illegal and that the word "Allah" was not exclusive to Islam.
The Home Minister's decision to ban the use of the word was illegal, null and void, said Lau.
Lawyers representing the government said they would refer to the Home Ministry on whether to appeal.
"It is a day of justice and we can say right now that we are citizens of one nation," said Father Lawrence Andrew, the Herald's editor.
Christians -- including about 800,000 Catholics -- make up about 9.1 percent of Malaysia's population. Malays are by definition Muslims and are not allowed to convert.
Malaysia was rated as having "very high" government restrictions on religion in a recent survey by the Pew Forum, bracketing it with the likes of Iran and Egypt and it was the 9th most restrictive of 198 countries.
Published since 1980, the Herald newspaper is printed in English, Mandarin, Tamil and Malay. The Malay edition is mainly read by tribes in the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo Island.
Ethnic Chinese and Indians, who are mainly Christians, Buddhists and Hindus, have been upset by court rulings on conversions and other religious disputes as well as demolitions of some Hindu temples.
(Editing by Nick Macfie)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BU0XV20091231
ムスリム側によるカトリック教会の襲撃。９日付けのCNNの報道；
Malaysian court suspends decision allowing Catholic paper to use 'Allah'
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jan 7, 2010 / 11:56 pm (CNA).- On Wednesday, the Malaysian High Court suspended a ruling that would have allowed a Catholic newspaper to use the word “Allah” in a non-Muslim context. The decision came after an appeal was made by prosecutors trying to overturn the ruling.
The Herald, Malaysia's sole Catholic publication, was prosecuted last year by the Malaysian Home Ministry and threatened with the loss of its printing license for its use of “Allah” in describing the Christian God in its Malay-language section.
The Herald argued that use of the term follows a centuries-old tradition within the Arabic language that pre-dates Islam, while the Home Ministry claimed that its usage outside the Muslim context was an affront to Muslims. Islam is both the state religion and the largest faith in the country.
The High Court decision on Wednesday came after the Archbishop of Malaysia and the Malaysian Home Ministry agreed that banning the use of “Allah” for non-Muslims was of national concern.
After last week's court approval of the paper's usage of “Allah,” which has since been retracted, hundreds of Muslim youth protested and The Herald's website was hacked several times.
“We believe these actions (are designed) to create a climate of fear and a perceived threat to national security so as to pressure the court in reversing it's decision,” said Fr. Andrew Lawrence, editor of The Herald, in a statement to the Agence France Presse (AFP) Wednesday.
Nevertheless, The Herald has agreed outside of the court to the suspension of the controversial ruling, given the sensitivity of the issue and potential backlash.
“We are Malaysians and we want to live in peace and happiness,” Fr. Lawrence stated.
Though court officials have indicated that the matter should be resolved soon, no court date has been set.
The Herald has a circulation of 14,000 a week, and is printed in four languages. Malaysia is home to around 850,000 Catholics.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/malaysian_court_suspends_decision_allowing_catholic_paper_to_use_allah/
日本の報道だと、『読売』の記事；
Four Malaysian churches firebombed after court rules Christians may use ‘Allah’Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jan 9, 2010 / 01:12 am (CNA).- Four churches in and around Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia have been firebombed in the continued reaction to a court ruling that Christians may use the word “Allah.”
One attack destroyed the first-floor offices of the three-story Metro Tabernacle Church. The Times reported that the worship hall itself was undamaged, but Kevin Ang, a church spokesman, said that the church is “90 percent gutted.”
Ang also reported that witnesses saw two persons on a motorbike who approached the entrance and threw in what looked like a petrol bomb.
Minor damage was caused in petrol bomb attacks on three other churches, one of them Catholic, in the adjacent town of Petaling Java, the Times reports.
Angry protests and cyber attacks on the website of the Herald, the Catholic newspaper involved in the case, followed the Malaysian High Court’s Dec. 31 ruling. The court said that the paper, Malaysia’s largest Catholic newspaper, may use “Allah,” also a traditional Malay word, to name the Christian God.
The high court suspended its ruling on Wednesday in anticipation of a government appeal.
Muslim preachers used Friday prayers to object to the decision, the Times reports.
“We will not allow the word Allah to be inscribed in your churches,” one speaker said at the Kampung Bahru mosque in central Kuala Lumpur. Protesters also carried posters reading “Heresy arises from words wrongly used” and “Allah is only for us.”
Muslims are a small majority in Malaysia, which has large Chinese and Indian populations who follow Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. Most of the readers of the Herald are Christian tribespeople in the states of Sarawak and Sabah in Borneo.
In a Wednesday statement the Herald editor Fr. Andrew Lawrence told the Agence France Presse (AFP) that the paper believed the website attacks were designed to create a “climate of fear” and a “perceived threat to national security” in order to pressure the court to reverse its decision.
“We are Malaysians and we want to live in peace and happiness,” Fr. Lawrence added.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/four_malaysian_churches_firebombed_after_court_rules_christians_may_use_allah/
幾つかの疑問。
キリスト教徒「アラー」使用…イスラム教徒猛反発
【シンガポール＝岡崎哲】マレーシアの裁判所が昨年末、キリスト教週刊誌に神の訳語として「アラー」の使用を認める判決を下したことに対し、多数派のイスラム教徒が反発を強めている。同国からの報道によると、首都クアラルンプールで８日、５００人規模の抗議デモがあったほか、９日までに首都などのキリスト教会４か所に火炎瓶が投げ込まれ、２か所で建物の一部が焼けた。
イスラム教が国教のマレーシアでは、国民の６割がイスラム教徒。政府は「アラー」の使用はイスラム教徒に限られるとして、昨年１月、カトリック系週刊誌「ヘラルド」マレー語版について、「アラー」の不使用や、キリスト教徒のみへの頒布を条件に１年間の発行を許可した。だが、キリスト教の神もマレー語で「アラー」と訳される事例もあるため、発行人の大司教が昨年２月、発行条件の解除を求めて政府を訴えた。
裁判所は昨年１２月３１日、「アラー」使用について憲法の「信教の自由」規定を根拠に「イスラム教徒への布教目的では違法だが、キリスト教徒への教育目的なら合法」と判断、「イスラム教徒を惑わす」とした政府主張を退けた。だが、イスラム教徒の猛反発もあり、政府は今月４日、上訴した。
政府は、全国のキリスト教会などで厳戒態勢を敷いており、ナジブ首相は８日、「異なる宗教を尊重してほしい」と国民に平静を呼びかけ、事態収拾に躍起だ。
（2010年1月9日23時08分 読売新聞）
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/world/news/20100109-OYT1T00974.htm
アラビア人のクリスチャンは自らの信仰対象をAllahと呼んでいる筈。Allahはイスラーム以前の多神教時代には個別の神ではなく一般項としての神を指示していた（Cf. 井筒俊彦『イスラーム生誕』）。基督教徒がAllahという言葉を使うなというのは、イスラームの根柢にある〈神の唯一性〉という教義と矛盾を来さないのか、疑問に思った。イスラーム的な立場からすれば、モーゼ、イエス、ムハマンドは唯一の（従って同一でしかあり得ない）神からそれぞれ違った時代に啓示を受けたということになっているのでは？ ところで、マレー語では、英語の（小文字の）god、日本語のカミに対応する存在者をどういう言葉で表しているのか。また、世界最大のイスラーム国家でもあるインドネシアの国語であるインドネシア語は実質的にはマレー語（ムラユ語）と同じだが、インドネシアの基督教徒は自らの信仰対象を何と言っているのか。
- 作者: 井筒俊彦
- 出版社/メーカー: 中央公論社
- 発売日: 1990/08
- メディア: 文庫
- クリック: 13回
- この商品を含むブログ (7件) を見る
