Indonesia will no more use the Arabic name ‘Isa (a.s.)‘ for referring to Jesus Christ. Rather, the ‘Jesus Christ’ would be called by the name in Bahasa-language as ‘Yesus Kristus’.
In Indonesia, the Christian Festivals are celebrated with full Liberty. According to the Statistical data, there are approx. 10.5% of the Christians living in Indonesia that roughly calculates to about 24 million of the Population.
The Popular Christian Festivals like Good Friday, the Ascension of Christ, and Christmas would now be referred in the Bahasa-language of Indonesia. Until now, these Christians holidays were denoted by the English Statements as, ‘the death of the Christ’, ‘the acension of the Christ’, and the ‘Birth of the Christ’
LOCAL CHRISTIANS FORCED THE MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS OF INDONESIA TO INDIGENIZE THE ARABIC NAME FOR ‘JESUS CHRIST’
The Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs ‘Saiful Rahmat Dasuki’ talked to the Local News channels and conveyed them that the change of the name of Jesus Christ to the Indonesian dialect was made at the request of the Indonesian Christians. They never had any plan to change the name of Isa (a.s.) to its Indonesian alternative. He said,
“They want a change in the nomenclature to reflect their faith, using ‘Jesus Christ’ in the commemoration of his birth, death, and ascension,” Antara quoted the minister as saying.”
The reason from the above statement comes out to be that the Indonesian Christians demanded such a name change to distinguish the Isa (a.s.) of the Qur’an from the God Incarnate form of ‘Jesus Christ’ mentioned in the Bible.
According to the statement made by Muhajir Effendy in September 20, the Coordinating-Minister for Human development and Culture, the Indonesia’s Ministry of religious affairs proposed a name-change, as reported by a state News-agency Antara.
OTHER ARABIC NAMES TO THE CHRISTIAN FIGURES ARE ALSO PREVALENT IN INDONESIA AND OTHER ISLAMIC COUNTRIES
Almost all the Islamic countries call the Prophets and other important figures of Christianity and Judaism by their equaivalent Arabic Names. In Indonesia too, various Arabic words mixed into the Local language of the people and are widely used by the Christians. Some of the words include ‘Injil’ for the Gospels, and ‘Jemaat’ for the ‘Congregation’.
