‘Allah’ ruling upholds sovereignty of Islam, says Isma June 23, 2014 KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — The Federal Court decision today to strike out an appeal by the Catholic Church over its use of the word “Allah” bolsters Islam’s position as the religion of Malaysia, a Muslim group said today. Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman said the majority decision was a welcome solution to long-standing religious tensions that followed the Catholic Church’s legal challenge for its right to use the Arabic word. “Praise be to the Almighty. We are thankful for this decision and hope all parties especially the church will accept it with an open heart,” he said as quoted by ISMAweb, the group’s website. Abdullah Zaik said must be respected by all and urged the Catholic Church not make statements or take action that could be seen as provocative or in defiance of today’s decision. Malaysia’s apex court ruled this morning that the Catholic newspaper the Herald has no grounds to appeal a lower court decision prohibiting it from using the word “Allah” to refer to God. The landmark decision on a divisive issue that has fuelled intense debate and heightened religious tensions in the country, brings to an end the Catholic Church’s challenge in the Malaysian court system. A seven-member bench at the Federal Court decided by a narrow 4-to-3 majority to deny the Catholic paper the right of appeal. “The Court of Appeal was right to set aside the High Court Ruling,” Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria told a packed courtroom this morning, upholding the lower court’s decision last year which overturned a high court ruling from 2009 allowing the paper to use the word as a constitutional right. The legal dispute has been in the courts for the last six years after the Home Ministry banned the publication of the word “Allah” in the Herald’s Bahasa Malaysia section in 2007.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 14:21:29 +0000
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