KOTA KINABALU – Putrajaya’s appeal against the high court’s nod on the use of the word “Allah” in Christian publications is a political ploy to unite Muslims in the peninsula, said Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
The Parti Warisan Sabah president said the move was orchestrated to score political points, and that he expects it to be used in election campaigns.
“They will use this as a move. They are playing a game. The high court has decided, and then they are appealing it.
“So, that is how they unite the Muslims. They use this (to campaign), especially when Ramadan is approaching,” he said here today.
It is not a new tactic, he said, adding that the federal-level manoeuvre is “readable”.
The use of “Allah” by non-Muslims was discussed by the cabinet during Barisan Nasional’s rule, when Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz was law minister.
The stand of the federal government at the time was that only non-Muslims in Sabah and Sarawak could use the word, and not those in the peninsula.
Shafie has for years supported the use of the word by non-Muslims, as well as backed the stand taken by former plantation industries and commodities minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem, who was Sarawak chief minister.
Adenan in 2014 rejected the ban on the use of “Allah” by non-Muslims.
Unlike Sarawak, the Sabah government led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Md Noor has yet to make clear its stand on the issue. – The Vibes, March 23, 2021
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