Court's decision on The Heralds use of the word 'Allah' out tomorrow

The Court of Appeal will convene on Monday to announce the verdict on whether weekly publication, The Herald, can use the word ‘Allah’ in its Malay edition following the Home Ministry prohibition 6 years ago.

The decision was fixed since last week when the Court of Appeal three-member panel delayed their decision on the 10th of September after completing hearing submissions from parties in the case.

The parties were the Home Ministry and the government, as well as the Kuala Lumpur Roman Catholics Archbishop.

The three-member panel comprises of Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali and Court of Appeal judges Datuk Abdul Aziz Abd Rahim and Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh.

However, whatever the result of the Court of Appeal, the parties involved in the case is expected to present their last appeal to the Federal Court.

The case was also attended by six Islamic councils- Terengganu Islamic Council, Selangor, Kedah, Johor, Federal Territory as well as Melaka and the Malaysian Chinese-Muslim Association (MACMA).

The dispute on the use of the word ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims started when KDN imposed a ban on the use of the word as a condition for permit renewal issuance in 2007, and other excuses such as that this will confuse Muslims.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Christian leaders in Sabah and Sarawak said that the Bumiputera churches will still use ‘Allah’ no matter what is the court’s decision is on Monday.

The Chairman of Sarawak Church Association, Rev. Datuk Bolly Lapok said the church in Sarawak hopes the Federal government will uphold the constitution and their promise of freedom of religion during the formation of Malaysia.

Bolly stresses that the use of the word ‘Allah’ has been part of the Christian Bumiputera practices in Sabah and Sarawak and this ban will restrict their right to practice their religion.

Reports also said the Council of Churches in Kota Kinabalu Sabah agree with this sentiment.

Two out of three Christians in this country are Bumiputeras’ in Sabah and Sarawak with an estimate of almost 1.6 million people.

The Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) in khutbah on Friday recently encouraged Muslims to band together “to protect the word Allah from being misused by non-Muslims”.

“You must believe and defend the sanctity of Islam by not letting non-Muslims insult our religion,” the khutbah said.

Jakim says the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Christians does not go together with the concept of god in Christianity and that by using the word it will confuse Muslims.

On Dec 31, 2009, the High Court declared the decision by the Home Ministry prohibiting The Herald from using the word as illegal, null and void.

It also opined that the word ‘Allah’ is not exclusive to Muslims and the word ‘Allah’ used by Christians is protected under the Federal Constitution as long as it is not used to preach to Muslims.

The decision was appealed by the government and the final decision will be announced on Monday.