High Court convenes today on ‘Allah’ issue

By Debra Chong, The Malaysian Insider

The High Court here will today hear the Catholic Church’s suit against the Home minister for barring it from using the word “Allah” as a reference to the Christian God.

The lawsuit stems from the government’s assertion that “Allah” should strictly refer to the muslim God in Malaysia. This is a view that the Catholic Church has been challenging.

The word “Allah”, the church argues, does not belong only to the muslims.

It also wants the court to allow it to continue printing the word “Allah” in its weekly newspaper, The Herald, while the case is being heard.

The Herald is published in four languages, including the national language Bahasa Malaysia (BM), which caters to the indigenous Malaysians from Sabah and Sarawak, who are mostly Christians.

Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Reverend Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam filed the suit on February 16 to get a declaration from the courts that the church has the right to use the word in print and in church services.

The Home ministry, which issues the annual printing permit for all publications, had warned the church to stop using the word.

Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, who headed the ministry then, claimed the church’s use of the word “Allah” in any literature published in BM would confuse muslims, who make up the biggest religious group in the country.

This is the second consecutive year in which Archbishop Murphy Pakiam is suing the Home minister to settle the dispute over the use of the word “Allah”.