Newspaper cannot use the name ‘Allah’ for God

Malaysia’s Federal Court has ruled the Catholic Church cannot use the Arabic “Allah” as a substitute for “God” in the Malay edition of its newsweekly Herald.

The ruling brings to an end an eight-year legal dispute which began when Murphy Pakiam, then Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, filed a lawsuit in response to then Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar’s banning of the newspaper from using the word because its use should be the preserve of Muslims.

Describing the judgement as disappointing, Herald editor Fr Lawrence Andrew says Malaysian Christians have long used the word “Allah” when referring to God, with the term still being used in a devotional context.

The current Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Julian Leow, told the Malaysian Insider he hopes the decision is “confined only to the Herald and will not open a Pandora’s box on curbing the rights of minorities in managing our own religious affairs”.