Magic Statistics

So much for the claim that Muslims and Christians worship the same God.

A Malaysian government official has threatened not to renew the publishing permit of a weekly Catholic newspaper if it continues to refer to God as Allah.  It is general practice among Malay-speaking Christians to call God Allah, but the official thinks it's a scheme to bamboozle Muslims.  He apparently thinks they're easily bamboozled.

The Herald, the organ of Malaysia's Catholic Church, has translated the word God as "Allah" but it is erroneous because Allah refers to the Muslim God, said Che Din Yusoff, a senior official at the Internal Security Ministry's publications control unit.

"Christians cannot use the word Allah. It is only applicable to Muslims. Allah is only for the Muslim god. This is a design to confuse the Muslim people," Che Din told The Associated Press.

The weekly should instead, use the word "Tuhan" which is the general term for God, he said.

The Herald’s editor, The Rev Lawrence Andrew, points out the Malay Bible uses the word Allah for God and Tuhan for Lord.  Malaysian Christians also say Allah to address God in worship and prayer.

The same official offered another reason for his demand, but it doesn’t make any more sense than the first.

Che Din said Christians don't use the word Allah when they worship in English, so they shouldn't use it in the Malay language too.

The use of different words may something to do with the fact that English and Malay are different languages.  Hello!

Malaysian publishers must be given government permits every year in order to remain in business.  Che Din’s directive is the kind of thing that can happen when governments impose such arbitrary restrictions on freedom of the press.

Previous related posts:

• Malaysia is an Islamic state, so stop arguing about it
• Malaysian media forbidden to report debate over Islamic state
• US warned over human trafficking report: Don’t alienate Muslims
• Lina Joy loses bid for legal recognition of religious conversion

UPDATE (30 Dec,): The government has backed down.

Yesterday’s post, "Steyn critics prove they don't understand freedom of speech", quickly attracted two comments from an individual who called him- or herself "lawiscool" and linked back to that blog.  Another Law Is Cool blogger left a comment early this morning; the latter individual kept his origin a secret, however.  He signed his name "Canadian dude", gave no internet link, and did not say he came here from Law Is Cool.  (Because the name includes "dude", I assume that person is a male.  I apologise if that assumption is erroneous.)

What’s more, the comment is demonstrably false and uninformed.  Here’s the whole thing:

This almost seems comical; none of you actually address the substantive content of the blog in question.

And looking at the other posts on this blog and the others in his fan base, the contents are as bad and at times worse than Steyn's.

You guys are a bunch of scary people down there in the U.S. Keep your notions of freedom on that side of the border, we don't want it.

I  responded briefly here, pointing out that I am in fact Canadian and my place of residence (Yukon) is prominently displayed at the top of the left sidebar.  Moreover, Article 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees a broad range of "fundamental freedoms", including “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication”.

We already know that the Law Is Cool blogger(s) defending the Muslim law students attacking Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine appear quite ignorant.  As Kathy Shaidle documents, their grammar and spelling leave much to be desired, their "substantive content" is easily disproved, and they don't know the meaning of such elementary internet terms as "spam".  We also know that they foolishly think they can arbitrarily alter comments and get away with it.

In like manner, because of Canadian dude’s lack of knowledge about the internet and blogging, his claim to have read "other posts on this blog" is proven false and his true origin exposed. By consulting my StatCounter service, I discovered that Canadian dude is a Law Is Cool blogger and visited only one post at my blog, namely, the one he commented on.

The administrator's comment page at my blog identifies Canadian dude's IP address as 99.243.245.229.  Tracking down that IP address at StatCounter's "Recent Pageload Activity" log brought up the Visitor Analysis, the Navigation Path from which is posted below.  (Sorry about the small size of the graphic.  Clicking on the image will bring up a full-size view.)

The first line of information shows that Canadian dude came to my blog via a link at the WordPress administration page at Lawiscool.com (where my link to that blog would have appeared).  He navigated from there directly to the post he commented on at 1:27 am this morning and again at 1:50 am (all times PST), and then at 1:52 am navigated to the comment box at that same post.  No other visits from that IP address to this blog are recorded.

Canadian bozodude's disdain for other posts at this blog appears, therefore, to be based on no first-hand knowledge of their contents.  At most, he could have perused recent post headlines listed in the right sidebar.  Given that he failed to notice my Yukon address at the top of the left sidebar, however, even that seems highly unlikely.

So, Canadian bozodude, you're a proven deceiver.  You're off to a fine start in your putative career as an alleged lawyer.

The collect for today, the 4th Sunday in Advent, from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

O Lord, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: Philippians 4:4-7
The Gospel: St John 1:19-28 

Artwork: Paolo Veronese, St. John the Baptist preaching, c. 1562, Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome.