Literature
As a Muslim majority country, opinions on whether the Indonesian-language Bible and Malay-language Bible, both known by the name al-kitab, should be banned, are polarised. The word rendered ‘Lord’ in English translations is given in Malay as ‘Tuhan’ while the word ‘God’ in English is translated as ‘Allah’. It was claimed that there is no closer translation from the original Hebrew since both Arabic and the Hebrew word for God come from the same Semitic root. Other Christian materials in the Malay language have been banned at various times for similar reason. However, the Prime Minister clarified in April 2005 that there was no ban on Bibles translated into Malay, but they must be stamped with the disclaimer "Not for Muslims".
The Iban Bible named Bup Kudus was also banned for using the term Allah Taala for God. Eventually it was explained to the government that there was no other comparable term in Iban. As such the ban was not enforced further but it was neither officially repealed. The ban was later lifted only for Iban people usage, after protests from the Christian leaders.
Read more about this topic: Christianity In Malaysia
Famous quotes containing the word literature:
““If Steam has done nothing else, it has at least added a whole new Species to English Literature ... the booklets—the little thrilling romances, where the Murder comes at page fifteen, and the Wedding at page forty—surely they are due to Steam?”
“And when we travel by electricity—if I may venture to develop your theory—we shall have leaflets instead of booklets, and the Murder and the Wedding will come on the same page.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“The calmest husbands make the stormiest wives.”
—17th-century English proverb, pt. 1, quoted in Isaac d’Israeli, Curiosities of Literature (1834)
“The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.”
—Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)