KUALA LUMPUR, 7 July 2009: The High Court here today fixed 17 July to hear the applications by nine religious councils to intervene in the Roman Catholic Church’s fresh application for a judicial review over the usage of the word “Allah” in its weekly publication.
Justice Lau Bee Lan also set the same date in chambers for mention of the judicial review application, which was to have been heard today.
The intervenors are seven state religious councils from Perak, Terengganu, Penang, Selangor, Kedah, Johor and Malacca, the Malaysian Gurdwaras Council, and the Malaysia Chinese Muslim Association.
On 16 Feb, the titular Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam, filed a fresh application for a judicial review after the 2008 judicial review application had become academic, as the permit for the Herald publication for the period 1 Jan to 31 Dec 2008 had expired.
In the application, Pakiam, as publisher of the Herald, named the Home Ministry and government of Malaysia as respondents in his action for a declaration that the decision of the respondents dated 7 Jan 2009, prohibiting him from using the word “Allah” in the Herald – The Catholic Weekly, is illegal.
He also sought a declaration that he is entitled to use the word “Allah” and that the word “Allah” is not exclusive to the religion of Islam.
— Bernama
See also: The problem with the “Allah” ban
Nicholas Aw says
The biblical story of David versus Goliath begins on 17 July. I do not want to make any statement that may be considered as contempt of court but I believe that whoever wins is to nobody’s advantage.
The situation is similar to a man trapped in a high-rise building that’s on fire – to jump means death; not to jump also means being burned to death.
I appeal to both parties to accept whatever decision the court arrives at and to seek whatever legal redress available if need be. When all avenues are exhausted then let it be. God by any other name is still God. It is the faith in your heart that is of utmost important. Religion is a personal experience between Man and God.
hanana bt abdullah says
Interestingly the ‘might of the pen’ carried a video and a write-up of the reporting of a statement by Jermaine Jackson in the New York Times about a couple of weeks
ago.it appeared that NYT replaced the use Allah {as spoken by Jermaine} with the word love.
So Pakiam, why all the big hassle of wanting to use Allah when a newspaper (NYT) in the USA avoids it?
steven says
Allah is the Arabic language word for GOD. Is there another word for GOD in the Arabic language? Say there is a Chinese person speaking the Arabic language in Saudi Arabia – what Arabic word should he/she use for his /her GOD?