‘Allah’ ban stays, rules court

PUTRAJAYA - The Federal Court here today dismissed the Catholic Church’s application for leave to appeal the ban on the use of the word “Allah” in its weekly publication, Herald.

The ruling at the Palace of Justice was delivered in a majority decision by Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria who led a seven-man bench.

The word Allah is mostly used by Christians in Sabah and Sarawak. The church had contended that the ban violated the freedom of religion and expression.

The ruling was greeted outside the Palace of Justice with shouts of “ Allahuakbar” from a large crowd of Muslim groups.

Four of the seven-member bench dismissed the application for leave to appeal, contending that the Court of Appeal was right to ban the use of the word in the Herald.

On Dec 31, 2009, the High Court declared that the decision by the Home Ministry in banning the Herald from using the word Allah was illegal, null and void. The Court of Appeal had set aside the High Court’s decision.

The Court of Appeal had ruled that the Home Minister’s decision to ban the word “Allah” was lawful and reasonable.

Besides Arifin, the other judges who concurred with his ruling were the president of the Court of Appeal Md Raus Sharif, Chief Judge of Malaya Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin and Federal Court Judge Suriyadi Halim Omar.

The other three dissenting judges were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjum, and Federal Court Judges Zainun Ali and Jeffrey Tan Kok Hwa.

In the dissenting decision, Malanjum said leave should be given in view of the public importance of the case and the need for the Federal Court to resolve questions of law.

FMT