November 29 2013
A Malaysian appeals court has upheld a government ban against a Catholic publication using the word “Allah” to refer to God.
The unanimous decision by three Muslim judges Monday overturned a 2009 ruling by a lower court that allowed the Malay language newspaper The Herald to use the word “Allah.”
The Malaysian government appealed the earlier decision, saying that “Allah” should be used exclusively by Muslims.
The appeals court ruled Monday that “Allah” is not an integral part of the Christian faith and such usage would cause confusion.
“Allah” is the Arabic word for God. In the Arab world, Christians pray to Allah since that is their word—as Arabic speakers—for God.
In the Malaysian language, “Allah” was adopted as the word for God more than a century ago. Ruling that “Allah” can only be used by Muslims implied that Christians and Muslims have different gods, something that neither Christian nor Muslim theologians generally accept.
The Malaysian Chronicle ran a commentary after the ruling disputing the logic of the court in saying “Allah” was not integral to Christianity and therefore could not used. The newspaper said that was an unsolicited theological interpretation whereas the decision of the three judges, all Muslims, should have been based on the law.
Muslims comprise about 60 percent of Malaysia’s 27 million people, with 20 percent being Buddhists, 9 percent Christian and 6 percent Hindu.