As Allah decision looms, Muslim groups offer peaceful opposition

Protesters representing several Muslim groups during a sit-in on August 22 outside the court in Putrajaya which heard the government's appeal against the High Court decision. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, October 13, 2013.Muslim groups have pledged to accept the Court of Appeal verdict if it maintains that the Catholic Church can use the word "Allah" in its weekly newspaper.

They admitted that while they might be unhappy with the decision but they would respect it as Putrajaya still had the option of appealing it at the Federal Court.

However, they maintained that the word was still exclusive to Muslims. To that end, they are planning to gather outside the court premises tomorrow in a show of support to Putrajaya which is appealing against a High Court ruling four years ago.

"About 1,000 members will be there to show solidarity," Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali told The Malaysian Insider.

Jalur Tiga (Jati) said its members would not resort to violence or any act of extremism should the court rule in favour of the church.

"There are other means and all is not lost at this stage," Jati president Datuk Dr Hassan Ali said.

He said his members would be there but promised they would not start or participate in activities which would tarnish the image of Islam.

Pertubuhan Pembela Islam chairman Dr Yusri Mohamad echoed the views of Hassan.

"The court is only one of the peaceful channels to resolve the matter. There are other options," he said.

He said Muslims must strive to show others that Islam was a peaceful religion and solutions could be found to all problems.

However the verdict goes on Monday, both sides have the choice of going to the Federal Court, the country’s apex court, to argue their case one final time.

On September 10, a three-man bench led by Datuk Seri Mohamad Apandi Ali heard submissions on the issue from lawyers representing Putrajaya, the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church and Muslim religious councils.

The bench heard a fresh argument by Putrajaya's lawyer, Suzana Atan, that national security and public order would be threatened if the word was allowed to be used in the Bahasa Malaysia section of the newspaper.

She also submitted that the Home Minister had prohibited the word from being used as it touched on Islamic religious sensitivities.

Muslims make up nearly 60% of Malaysia’s population and Islam is the official religion.

Suzana said that after the High Court ruling there were several arson attempts on churches and an incident in which vandals tossed a pig’s head into a mosque.

In support of its argument, the government had filed two affidavits, both obtained from journalists, as fresh evidence.

Lawyer Mubashir Mansor, who represented the Terengganu council, said the Herald had gone online and so the word was accessible to Muslims.

He said it was a veiled attempt to propagate Christianity to Muslims.

Meanwhile Porres Royan, who appeared for the church, said High Court judge Lau Bee Lan had decided rightly on grounds that the ban was a violation of freedom of speech and religion.

He said that the national security and public order argument by Putrajaya was an afterthought.

Royan went on to explain that in 1980 the word was banned by a regulation under the now repealed Internal Security Act.

He said two years later there was an exemption order where the word could be used in the Al-Kitab imported from Indonesia and also in the languages of the natives of Sabah and Sarawak.

He said the Herald had been using the word since 1994.

Royan also said the government allowed the Al-Kitab in the Indonesian and Malay languages, which contained the word Allah, to be imported and printed in the country as part of the 10-point solution in April 2011.

Counsel S. Selvarajah, a member in the church's legal team, said the matter would go to the Federal Court irrespective of the outcome.

"This case revolves around religious, administrative and constitutional issues and it is best the apex court makes a finding for the guidance of everyone," he said.

The Allah row erupted in early 2009 when the Home Ministry threatened to revoke the Herald’s newspaper permit for using the word Allah when referring to God.

This action prompted the church to sue the government for violating its constitutional rights.

The High Court then allowed the church's judicial review application and lifted the home minister's ban on the use of the word in the Herald.

Among other things, the judge said that the church had a constitutional right to use the word Allah in its newspaper on grounds that religions other than Islam can be practised in peace and harmony.

The judge also found that although Islam is the religion of the Federation, it did not authorise the government to stop the church from using the word in its publication.