Herald a Problem


When someone talk about The Herald perhaps, he is not referring to the UK newspaper.In Malaysia, The Herald is a church publication for the country's 850,000 Catholics. Then, Catholic newspaper had been in the news since last year when it nearly lost its publishing licence for using the word Allah as a translation for God . The latest news was that the newspaper was ordered by the government to cease its Malay language edition until courts resolve a ban on the paper's use of the word. Father Lawrence Andrew, the newspaper editor had said the move was part of a series of restrictions put in place by the conservative Muslim government. He said the ban did not make any sense because a large proportion of Catholics in Malaysia mainly speak Malay. Allah, by the way is used by Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, in reference to God and was also used by pagan Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity in pre-Islamic Arabia. I suppose if it is a Buddhist publication we are talking about, there wouldn't be such a problem since Buddhism, I understand, doesn't place much importance on the role of God in a man's life. A man ought to be responsible for his actions and it is he himself and not God who will determine his destiny. Then, of course, I suppose too Buddhists in Malaysia do not have such a great propagating vehicle like The Herald, at least, not that I know of, and there is therefore no reason to speculate. Maybe, without a propagating machine, it is more apt to talk about when the light of dhamma will be extinguished...

Comments

Liudmila said…
my god, how many religions live together in your region! I don't understand, how the muslims can stand it till today.
footiam said…
Mine is a multi-cultural, multiracial country, with Islam being the official religion. Over 60% of the people are Malays and according to the constitutions, they are all Muslims. There are Buddhists, Christians and Hindu here and most Buddhists ae Chinese, the Indians are Hindus.