THE Catholic Church on Thursday lost the latest round of a legal battle with Malaysian authorities over the use of the word 'Allah' as a translation for 'God' in its newspaper published here. The Herald newspaper, circulated among the country's 850,000 Catholics, nearly lost its publishing licence last year for using the disputed word in its Malay-language edition.
The government argued that the word should be used only by Muslims, who dominate the population of multicultural Malaysia.
A legal tussle ensued and in February the government gazetted a law allowing the Herald to use 'Allah', only to rescind permission shortly afterwards.
On Thursday the church lost its bid for a temporary order to allow it to print the disputed word - which it says has been used by Catholics in Malaysia for centuries - until the issue is thrashed out in court once and for all.
'We had asked them to lift the ban so that we can use the word until the court decides. We are innocent until proven guilty, so why shouldn't we use it,' said the newspaper's editor Father Lawrence Andrew.
'But they have decided against the case, and to bring forward the hearing,' he said.
'The court is going to hear our case on July 7 so that's an opening in the dark tunnel,' he told AFP.
Around 60 per cent of Malaysia's 27 million people are Muslim Malays.
The rest of the population includes indigenous tribes as well as ethnic Chinese and Indians, variously practising Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism, among others.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Source (AFP)
SV (ED)