UPDATED
By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 — The Roman Catholic Church in Malaysia finally won the right to challenge the government’s ban on the right to use the word “Allah” to mean “God” outside of Islam.
The High Court today granted leave to the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, as the publisher of Catholic newspaper The Herald, in his application for a judicial review.
The Catholic Church claims the word “Allah” is not exclusive to Islam and wants the court to overturn the home minister’s order declaring it as such.A lawyer for the Catholic Church, Derek Fernandez, said it was supposed to be a “simple, straightforward matter” but became complicated as more and more parties got involved in the suit.
Several state Islamic councils including from Penang as well as certain Sikh religious groups had sought and were granted permission by the court early this year to intervene in the Catholic Church’s suit.
The archbishop had originally filed the suit early last year and made a new application two months ago, on Feb 16, following the home minister’s renewal of the newspaper’s annual publishing permit for 2009.
Justice Lau Bee Lan from the Appellate and Special Powers division made her decision on the matter in chambers this morning.
She also set May 28 to hear the Catholic Church’s application to stay the home minister’s directive and to allow it to use the word “Allah” until the court rules conclusively that it cannot.
The leading lawyer for the Catholic Church, Porres Royan, explained to The Malaysian Insider that until the court approves the stay, the “status quo is preserved”.
Editor of The Herald, Rev Father Lawrence Andrew verified that the weekly had stopped using the word “Allah” to refer to the Christian God in both its English and Malay-language sections.
“At the moment we’re not using the word ‘Allah’. We’re using the word ‘Tuhan’ in the Malay section, which is not the correct word,” he told The Malaysian Insider, adding it had received letters from concerned Catholics who were confused by the sudden change in the theological terms used to tell apart the different aspects of God.
“When do we say ‘God’ and when do we say ‘Lord’?” Fr Lawrence highlighted, pointing out that “Allah” was used to differentiate God the Father from His incarnation as Jesus, the “Christ” which also means “the Lord”.

written by mh, April 24, 2009
written by m.k., April 24, 2009
written by Rage against the Machine, April 24, 2009
but no, Malaysia loves the religious and racial stories. especially when 2 or more religions have a conflict of interest. why bother?
fundamentalism still survives in this day and age of openness and inter-dependence among different cultures. stop the quarelling and start loving each other, la!
written by Paul Ong, April 24, 2009
The word ALLAH is used extensively by the Christians in Sabah and Sarawak and not limited to the Herald magazine! I bet the word "ALLAH" was used even before you were even born! Why the home ministry (Syed Botak) started this banninig "ALLAH" for the Christians? If he shut his mouth from the very beginning, I am sure this is a non issue.
written by R.Rama Chandran, April 24, 2009
written by Johan SSM @ Khun Pana, April 24, 2009
Botak was just playing to the tune of his political party.
Lets us blame the entire episode just on bn as a whole.
Everything was okay and fine until bn created this unnecessary tension.
written by Tantech, April 24, 2009
written by Rakyat Supremacy, April 24, 2009
written by j, April 24, 2009
written by second, April 24, 2009
written by Hang Tuah 1, April 24, 2009
The status quo is preserved until...
The court approves the stay.
That Catholic Church can use the term Allah as it always has.
...as Christian Bumiputra has always use this term from the beginning when they frist became Christians. The Bible in Malay right from its first translation and publication has always used the term.
This term Allah has always been used by the Arab Christians for the last 2000 years...longer that Islam as introduced by the prophet.
The issue is not who can use the term Allah...
The issue is why not.
Why should anyone wants to exclude others by use of force, by use of law from others from using it??
The Malay Muslims use this term.
The Malay Christians also use this term. Many of them are found in Indonesia.
Why then we should quarrel when for so long since our independence this term was never an issue??
What is the motive?
What is the political motive?
What is the religious motive?
Some feel the Malays have given up so much...
They gave citizenships to pendatang asing...though this was part of the social contract and should not be discussed as a discrimination to anyone. In the first place, the British ruled Malaya at that time as colonial masters. That was why the need for Malaya to gain independence...so the British had the right to offer citizenships to anyone. Instead they allowed this to be discussed as part of the social contract in exchange for special positions of Malays.
They gave up Singapore...In history Stamford Raffles was known as the founder of Singapore. In modern history, Singapore was 'sacked' by Tunku Abdul Rahman - kicked out from Malaysia because of Lee Kuan Yew's concept on Malaysian Malaysia - and LKY's PAP was gaining grounds on Peninsular Malaysia, hence he became a threat to topple the Alliance government in the general election.
Now Malays gave up this term Allah...the Malays were originally Hindus as history tells us that Parameswara was a prince in Hindu's Srivijaya empire in Sumatra. Parameswara gave the freedom to Malays to choose their religion. It was later, perhals another sultan - that Malays were converted to Islam.
Allah is not a Malay word. It is Arabic. Before Malays became Muslims, Christians were already using this term Allah in Arab countries. When the Portugese came to Indonesia and Malacca, the missionaries used the term Allah. That is why the Bible in Indonesia since the beginning had used this term until today.
Common sense should prevail.
According to our constitution, anyone has the freedom to practise his or her religion without fear or persecution. Let's keep the status quo.
written by pttan, April 24, 2009
It is like using the term "father" only when you want to call daddy.
As usual, they will only see from their side and point of view, sad to say but true.
And this comment comes from a non Catholic.
written by freedom pursuer, April 24, 2009
written by CodeNameSomaliPirate, April 24, 2009
You always has the right to use 'ALLAH' as long as you might says' LA ILLAH HA ILLALLAH, MUHAMMADDAR-RASULLULLAH' means 'There's no God but Allah and Mohamed is the Messager'. Welcome aboard! U r MUSLIM now!, Prays to Allah.
written by common era, April 25, 2009
Be open minded, open yr heart and you will not be confused....
This is the common eras ie CE.....
written by Apostle, April 25, 2009
So to prevent misunderstanding between the Catholics and the Muslims, The Catholic Church should explain if the "Allah" that they use for the Herald will also refer to the "Allah" of the Quran. And please make this available widely in Sabah, Sarawak and the Peninsula.
And to the Malaysian government, STOP PRACTICING DOUBLE STANDARDS. If you want to ban Allah from the Catholic publication, show that you are impartial and fair by banning the word Isa and all the other Catholic prophets from Quran also. It is this double standards that you are practicing that the rakyat is abandoning BN to support PR. If you can't remove corruption from your ministers, the least you can do is to ensure the policies you practice is fair to all Malaysians regardless of race, language and religion.
written by Steven Ong, April 25, 2009
We should concentrate our energy and time for the betterment of our lives and the world. There are so much killings and suffering in the name of God....... in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Somalia and ...... If you really love God, go and sacrifies your life in those countries. No! not taking anymore lives, but to stop the killing and bring about peace. Surely God will bless you and greatly reward you. You who forgive your enemies and love them.
Stop wasting your time and others - ACT NOW. DO IT. Assurely I say to you ,'You are my good neighbours.'
written by Francis Ngu, April 25, 2009
"---an Iban (Dayak) showed me the the first lines of the Genesis in the Iban bible where clearly the word Allah was used from the very beginning that the Iban Bible was published. Anyone can figure out the implications of such a legal ban on the word Allah, for Christians in Malaysia using the local language Bible. Enormous distress, to say the least."
"--- in Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population among nations in the world, there is acceptance for Christians to refer to God as Allah.
With the gazetted ban on Christians in Malaysia using the the word Allah, would it follow that an Indonesian Christian would be banned from bringing the Indonesian language Bible into Malaysia?
Had Malaysian authorities foreseen that the gazetted ban may have extended repercussions beyond its own Christian citizenry ?"
And the following from another separate post:
"The great faiths, and would one dare to say scientific nontheist faith, are Divine gifts to humanity, different in form to suit different cultures, at different times of history. They are however very similar in substance, in the shared core values of love and humanity, and they should be universally shared in the globalised confluence of digital age civilisation.
That apparent differences in faiths may not lead god-created communities, and indeed the entire world, to self-destruction in nuclear-age conflicts, but that the shared universal values be the driving force bonding humankind, divinity and divine-created Planet Earth."
Blog N Francis Sarawakiana.
written by layman, April 25, 2009
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Say: He is Allah, the One and Only!
Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
He begetteth not nor is He begotten.
And there is none like unto Him.
Now, do you non-muslim understand why we muslim cannot allow you to use word Allah??
written by layman, April 25, 2009
Say: He is Allah, the One and Only!
Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
He begetteth not nor is He begotten.
And there is none like unto Him.
- translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali
more details : http://wahiduddin.net/quran/ikhlas.htm
Now you non-muslim understand why we cannot allow you to use word Allah.
written by mat, May 24, 2009




