Catholic Church loses bid to use word ‘Allah’ in Malaysia

Malaysia’s highest court on Monday dismissed a bid by the Catholic Church for the right to use the word “Allah,” ending a years-long legal battle that has heightened religious tensions in the Muslim-majority country.

The legal wranglings were seen as a test case for Malaysia’s wider Christian community, but the government later clarified that the verdict was confined to the Catholic newspaper at the center of the controversy. Worshippers can still use “Allah” to refer to God in church, the government added.

The divisive case, in which the Catholic Church challenged a gov- ernment ban on its long-time use of the Arabic word, comes as minorities raise concerns that their rights are under threat from increasing Islamization in Malaysia.

The government had previously banned the use of “Allah” in the local Malay-language edition of the Church’s Herald newspaper. The use of the word had angered Muslims, who say Christians are overstepping religious boundaries.

A seven-judge panel in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya on Monday upheld a lower court decision siding with the government.

But a government spokesper- son later clarified: “The ruling only applies to the Herald newspaper’s use of the word ‘Allah’. Malaysian Christians can still use the word ‘Allah’ in church.”

Christians had argued that they had used the word to refer to God in Malay for centuries.

“The Christian community continues to have the right to use the word ‘Allah’ in our Bibles, church services and Christian gatherings... as we have done all this while,” said Eu Hong Seng, chair of the Christian Federation of Malaysia.

Lawyers for the Catholic Church said they would explore further ways to challenge the ban, expressing fears that Monday’s ruling could be used as a precedent to curtail religious freedom in other cases.

Outside the court, which was cordoned off, around a hundred Muslim activists cheered the news of the verdict. Earlier, they had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and waved banners that read, “Uniting to defend the name of Allah.”

“We must defend ‘Allah’ because this is our religious obligation. I hope other communities, including Christians, understand this,” said Ibrahim Ali, head of Muslim rights group Perkasa.