KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (PA) – A Malaysian court ruled on Wednesday that non-Muslims can use the word “Allah” to refer to God in a major decision on a divisive issue for religious freedom in the Muslim-majority country .
Two Malaysian political parties immediately expressed concern and called on the government on Thursday to challenge the ruling.
The High Court ruled that a 35-year government ban on the use of Allah and three other Arabic words by Christian publications was unconstitutional, said the applicant’s lawyer, Annou Xavier.
The government has previously said that Allah should be reserved exclusively for Muslims in order to avoid confusion that could lead them to convert to other religions, a position that is unique in Malaysia and has not been a problem in other Muslim-majority nations. considerable Christian minorities.
Christian leaders in Malaysia say the ban is unreasonable because Malaysian-speaking Christians have long used Allah, a Malay word derived from Arabic, in their Bibles, prayers and songs.
The decision of the high court seems to contradict a previous decision of the country’s Federal Court in 2014, which upheld the government’s ban following a legal appeal by the Roman Catholic Church, which had used the word Allah in its Malaysian newsletter.
“The court has now said that the word Allah can be used by all Malaysians,” Xavier said. “Today’s decision enshrines the fundamental freedom of religious rights for non-Muslims in Malaysia,” enshrined in the constitution, he added.
Muslims make up about two-thirds of Malaysia’s 32 million people, with large Chinese and Indian ethnic minorities. Christians make up about 10% of the population.
Most Malaysian Christians worship in English, Tamil or various Chinese dialects and refer to God in these languages, but some people who speak Malaysia on the island of Borneo have no other word for God than Allah.
Three other words – “kaabah” or the holiest altar of Islam in Mecca, “baitullah” or house of God and “solat” or prayer, were also banned in the 1986 government directive.
In a joint statement, the United Malaysian National Organization and the Islamic Conservative Party said they viewed the court’s ruling with concern and called on the government to continue the case in the Court of Appeal. Interior Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.
The government ban was introduced under the leadership of a coalition led by UMNO, but the coalition was eliminated in the historic elections of 2018. UMNO returned to power under a new government dominated by Malaysia last year, following a series of political maneuvers.
Government lawyer Shamsul Bolhassan was quoted by The Star as saying that the four words can be used in Christian materials in accordance with the court ruling, as long as it is clearly stated that it is intended only for Christians and a symbol of a cross is displayed.
The ruling was the result of a lengthy legal challenge by a Christian woman whose religious materials containing the word Allah were confiscated by authorities at the airport when she returned home from Indonesia in 2008.
The controversy over the use of Allah has provoked violence in Malaysia. Anger over a lower court ruling against the 2009 government ban has led to a series of arson attacks and vandalism at churches and other places of worship. This decision was subsequently overturned by the higher courts.