KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 – The High Court here will decide in the next two weeks whether to allow several state Islamic councils into a legal dispute moved by the Catholic Church which is fighting for the right to use “Allah” in its publications.
Judge Lau Bee Lan fixed August 3 to deliver her decision after hearing arguments from the lawyers for the church and the federal counsel in her chambers today.
Counsel for the church S. Selvarajah told reporters the church is opposed to the intervention from the religious groups, including from the Malaysian Gurdwara Council and the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association (Macma) “because a judicial review only concerns the decision-maker and the party affected.”
Senior federal counsel Datuk Kamaludin Md Said agreed with the church that the Sikh council and Macma should be barred from taking part in the suit.
He added that the law under Order 53, Rule 8 of the Rules of the High Court 1980, did not allow parties that were supportive of the challenger’s bid to take part in the suit.
However, he supported the bid by the 10 state Islamic councils to oppose the Catholic Church because he believes they fulfil the criteria of being “interested parties” being the advisors to the rulers who are the heads of Islam in their respective states.
The church, which publishes The Herald, a weekly newspaper available in Bahasa Melayu, English, Mandarin and Tamil, is challenging the Home Minister’s right to ban it from printing the word “Allah” to mean God in a non-Muslim context.
It filed for the court to review the minister’s decision in February, claiming the latter has abused its authority and denied Catholics their constitutional right to freely practice their religion in Malaysia.
The home minister had previously threatened to shut down the newspaper by withdrawing its annual publishing permit if it continued to use the word in the Bahasa Melayu section.
But Reverend Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of The Herald, explained the word “Allah” is used to cater to the large population of Malay-speaking ethnic groups in Sabah and Sarawak, many who are Christian.
The government insists that the Malaysian Muslim fraternity will be confused if non-Muslims are allowed to also use the word to refer to their God.
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