Church's lawyer: Judgment goes beyond The Herald

The government cannot simply decide that Sabah and Sarawak Christians are allowed to use the word 'Allah', as the Court of Appeal's judgment had already found no basis for such use, a lawyer for the Archbishop said.

Annou Xavier (left), who is legal counsel for Catholic Archbishop Murphy Pakiam on the matter said this is evident in Justice Mohamed Apandi Ali's judgment that the word is "not integral" to the Christian faith.

“The Court of Appeal did not deal with The Herald or the Printing Presses and Publications Act, but was a very wide judgment which goes beyond The Herald.

“In his judgment Justice Apandi said his ‘quick research’ found that the word 'Allah' is not part of the faith and practices of Christianity.

“So it is not for (ministers) Joseph Kurup or Wan Junaidi (Tuanku Jaafar) to say, 'It's okay, because that is peninsula and nothing to do with Sabah and Sarawak, or that this is The Herald and not about the al-Kitab,” he told Malaysiakini.

He also stressed that Apandi had also led the three-member bench, which delivered the unanimous decision on Monday.

He was responding to Kurup, a minister in the Prime Minister's Department, who said that the cabinet had decided that Sabah and Sarawak Christians can use the word 'Allah', and that the 10-point solution on Malay language Bible al-Kitab stands.

In his judgement, Justice Apandi said: “In the Bible, God has always been known as ‘Yahweh’. That being the historical fact, it can be concluded the word ‘Allah’ is not an integral part of the faith and Christianity practice, in particular that of the Roman Catholic Church.”

Muslim lawyers disagree

However, disagreeing with Annou, Muslim Lawyers' Association of Malaysia (PPMM) president Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar said that the judgment only refers to The Herald and is not a blanket ban of the use of the word 'Allah' by non-Muslims.

He added the case was constrained to whether the home minister had acted legally when he prohibited the use of the word 'Allah' byThe Herald.

As such, Zainul Rijal (left) said, when the bench found that the minister did not act illegally, it “simply means that the Archbishop was prohibited from using the word ‘Allah’ in “The Herald – The Catholic Weekly”.

“PPMM is of the view that the decision goes as far as prohibiting the Archbishop from using the word 'Allah' in The Herald - the Catholic Weekly, a publication, and nothing beyond that,” he said.

However, he stressed that although there is no blanket ban, the judgment also states that all Malaysians can use the word 'Allah' only in the Islamic reference to God, as per chapter 112 (al-Ikhlas or Purity) of the Quran.

He added that careful reading of the three written judgments also show that the court had considered all relevant provisions of the federal constitution and necessary statutes.

With this, Zainul Rijal urged all parties to read and understand all sections of the judgments from the three judges and to avoid “unneccessary and unwarranted remarks” that may cause confusion.