Catholic Church’s bid to strike out ‘Allah’ appeal set for Aug 22

The tussle over the word “Allah” will return to the courts on August 22, when the Court of Appeal will hear the Catholic Church’s bid to dismiss Putrajaya’s appeal against the 2009 High Court ruling upholding the Christians’ right to use the Arabic word.

The hearing will be the first time the matter has returned to the legal arena since it was left to languish for nearly four years after the government contested the landmark decision that had shocked Muslims in Malaysia.

“[The] application to strike out the government’s appeal against Justice Lau Bee Lan’s judgment will be heard on August 22nd,” Father Lawrence Andrew, the editor of Catholic newspaper Herald, said in a text message to The Malay Mail Online.

“Relying on God’s promises to our Ancestors, let us pray that our application to strike out the appeal of the government be favourable in His sight and that the government be denied any further hearing on this case in all the courts.”

The Titular Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur filed the application last month after patience finally ran out with the lack of progress on the government’s appeal over the decision that has contributed to festering interfaith ties in the country.

According to Lawrence then, the government had shown no signs of dropping its suit despite the Najib administration’s initial overtures to mend the cracks that have appeared in Malaysia’s multireligious society.
“This appeal case has to be struck out because the prime minister had in a letter dated 11 April 2011 offered a 10-point solution to the problems faced by the Christians in procuring the Al-Kitab for their worship, study and prayer,” Lawrence told The Malay Mail Online then.
The 10-point solution was an assurance given by Datuk Seri Najib Razak to the country’s Christian population that they were free to bring in and use their bibles in Malay as well as in other indigenous languages that contained the word “Allah”, after shipments of the holy book were banned.
Deep-running anger over the issue was again exposed last month when far-right Muslim groups railed against remarks by the Vatican’s first envoy to Malaysia, Archbishop Joseph Marino, on the issue.
In an interview with the media, Marino had described the local Catholic Church’s arguments based on the government’s 10-point solution as “logical and acceptable”.
Alleging him to be interfering in Malaysian affairs, groups such as Perkasa and Jati demanded his censure and expulsion from the country, warning that all manner of religious strife would occur otherwise.
Marino later apologised for the remarks and denied he was meddling in the matter.
The “Allah” row erupted in 2008 when the Home Ministry threatened to revoke the Herald’s newspaper permit, prompting the Catholic Church to sue the government for violating its constitutional rights.
The 2009 High Court decision upholding the Catholic Church’s constitutional right to use the word “Allah” had shocked Muslims who considered the word to only refer to the Muslim God. It also led to Malaysia’s worst religious strife, with houses of worship throughout the country coming under attack.
Christians are Malaysia’s third-largest religious population at 2.6 million people, according to statistics from the 2010 census, behind Muslims and Buddhists.
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