Malaysian Court rules non-Muslims can say God's name

[NewYorkExpress]

https://apnews.com/article/religion-asia-pacific-malaysia-af8a1412896618fd5011fb810eee0388

A Malaysian court ruled Wednesday that non-Muslims can use the word “Allah” to refer to God, in a major decision over a divisive issue for religious freedom in the Muslim-majority country.

Two ethnic Malay political parties immediately voiced concern and Thursday urged the government to challenge the ruling.

The High Court deemed unconstitutional a 35-year-old government ban on the usage of Allah and three other Arabic words by Christian publications, said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Annou Xavier.

The government has previously said Allah should be reserved exclusively for Muslims to avoid confusion that could lead them to convert to other religions, a stance that is unique to Malaysia and hasn’t been an issue in other Muslim-majority nations with sizeable Christian minorities.



Christian leaders in Malaysia say the ban is unreasonable because Christians who speak the Malay language have long used Allah, a Malay word derived from Arabic, in their Bibles, prayers and songs.

The high court ruling appeared to contradict an earlier decision by the country’s Federal Court in 2014 that upheld the government ban following a legal challenge by the Roman Catholic Church, which had used the word Allah in its Malay-language newsletter.

[CumbrianLefty]

Interesting that most Muslim countries have never had this restriction.

[FT-02 Senator A.F.E. 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

I honestly am clueless on why this ban was implemented in the first place since we consider Allah to be the God of all things, Christians included, so frankly this ban makes no sense.

[Joseph Cao]

As the article points out, this was a pretty big controversy for a while around 2014, and several times in the decades before that if anecdotal evidence from my relatives and friends is accurate. Hard not to be when it was technically illegal for Christians to write, disseminate, or sing songs containing the word "Allah".

Then again all evidence suggests that most churches – even children's churches – still used it regularly. The law wasn't seriously enforced to the degree one would expect from a law pertaining to a hot-button Muslim issue.

We'll see what happens with UMNO/PAS predictably up in arms about this (prompted by the grassroots no doubt), but to the extent that the current government has tried to steer clear of hot potatoes like this I wouldn't want them to get their hopes up about a reversal of the ruling.

[Joseph Cao]

I honestly am clueless on why this ban was implemented in the first place since we consider Allah to be the God of all things, Christians included, so frankly this ban makes no sense.

Islamic fundamentalism in Malaysia has generally been somewhat detached from what might be considered proper observance of the religion, to put it mildly.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

I find it hilarious they’re worried someone might accidentally convert to Christianity solely based on the fact that Christians can use the word “Allah”.

“Oh no I tripped into this church now I’m catholic!”