Govt still pushing for ban on use of 'Allah'
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The government's appeal against a High Court ruling to allow the Catholic weekly Herald to use the word "Allah" has been allowed to go ahead.
The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal yesterday denied the application by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur to strike out the government’s appeal.
Hearing for the appeal has been fixed for September 10.
Earlier, church lawyer Porries Royan had argued that the 10 points signed by PM Najib Razak on April 11, 2011,allowed the import and publication of bibles in all languages, including Malay and Indonesian, and the use of the word “Allah” without restriction. Hence, he said, the Herald too should be allowed to use the word.
Senior Federal Counsel Suzanna Atan replied that the application was frivolous, as there were many live and comprehensive issues to be trial.
Counsel for the Terengganu Islamic Religious Council said it was premature to strike out the appeal, though the Cabinet’s decision to allow the bible to be published in Malay had nothing to do with this appeal.
Islamic religious councils from Selangor, Kedah, Johor, Wilayah Persekutuan and Malacca provinces also adopted his stance.
The Roman Catholic archbishop filed an application against the government’s appeal on July 9.
The Home Ministry and the government were appealing against the December 31, 2009 High Court decision that allowed the church’s judicial review to lift the ministry’s ban on the use of the word “Allah” in the Herald in reference to the Christian god.
The church, led by Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, filed the judicial review on February 16, 2009, naming the Home Ministry and the government as respondents.
They sought, among others, a declaration that the decision by the Home Ministry on January 7, 2009, prohibiting the use of the word “Allah” in the Herald was illegal and that the word is not exclusive to Islam.
The weekly, published in four languages, has been using the word “Allah” in reference to God in its Malay-language section, but the government argued that “Allah” should be exclusively used by Muslims only.
