Another case looms over use of ‘Allah’

(The Straits Times) – A religious authority has warned that it could sue the main lawyers' organisation over its use of the word “Allah” on the legal body's website.

The dispute is the latest of a series of rows to emerge over the use of the word, which has pitted the Islamic authorities against the minority Christians and other non-Muslim groups.

The Bar Council, representing some 12,000 lawyers, used the word as a translation for “God” in two online polls on its website.

It invited lawyers to vote on whether any particular race in Malaysia had an exclusive right to use “Allah” and whether non-Muslim religious publications should be allowed to use the word.

But the chairman of the Selangor Islamic council, or Mais, Datuk Mohamad Adzib Mohamad Isa, said the usage of the word “Allah” by the Bar Council could “threaten the sensitivity of Muslims”.

He insisted that under federal religious laws, Mais had the power to take legal action against anyone misusing the word “Allah”.

The Bar Council replied that it would defend its use of the word.

“We haven't been served any (legal) documents yet, but we are prepared to defend it in court,” its president Ragunath Kesavan told The Straits Times.

When asked if he felt the Bar Council had done anything wrong in using the word, he said: “No.”

The issue of whether non-Muslims should be allowed to use the word is highly sensitive among a section of Malay Muslims in Malaysia.

The Islamic authorities have long insisted that the word is to be used to refer only to God in the Islamic faith. Non-Muslims say the word is widely used to refer to God in the Arabic-speaking world.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court is due to hear the dispute over the usage of the word “Allah” in the Catholic weekly, Herald, in May.

The controversy over the use of the word came to the fore when church publications were banned from using it following a Cabinet decision in 2006.

A long-running exchange then ensued between the government and the Herald, which has been threatened with closure for using “Allah” in its Malay-language edition.

After months of wrangling with the Catholic church, the government surprisingly issued a gazette last month permitting Christian publications to use it.

But the decision was reversed almost immediately, with the government saying the move was a “mistake”.

There is some disagreement even among Muslims.

Respected Muslim leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, who is spiritual head of the opposition Pas, said non-Muslims should be allowed to use the word.

But officials at the Home Ministry said non-Muslims should use “Tuhan” instead.

Minority groups have complained of increasing “Islamisation” in the country and claimed that the dispute is part of the gradual erosion of their rights.