Paul Keenan
Legal battle ends with Appeals Court ruling
Malaysia’s highest court has ruled that a ban on Christians using the title ‘Allah’ is legal and can be upheld.
Following a long legal battle undertaken by the Church locally after the government had moved to bar a Catholic newspaper, The Herald, from referring to God as Allah, the Court of Appeal ruled June 23, in a four-to-three judgement, that Christians have no legal right to utilise the title in this way.
The Allah dispute first began in 2007 when the Malaysia’ Home Ministry ordered The Herald to cease its use of ‘Allah’.
The Church felt compelled to challenge the order, given that it could show the name usage in Malay-language Bibles over hundreds of years. This resulted in the bar being overturned in 2009.
However, tensions increased amid Muslim fears that the usage could lead to conversions from Islam, and the government moved to issue a full ban via the courts in October 2013. It was this latest ban which was upheld by the Appeals Court on Monday.
Muslims awaiting the judgement outside the court were jubilant with one spokesman insisting that their defence of the name Allah was a religious duty and was in no way anti-Christian.
Fr Lawrence Andrew SJ, editor, of The Herald, who became a central figure in the Allah debate, and received death threats from Muslims angered at non-Muslim usage of the name, said “we are greatly disappointed by this judgment”.
