Luceo’s Diary

Malaysia’s Catholics fight to use ‘Allah’ in paper

A Malaysian Catholic newspaper on Friday pushed ahead with a legal fight to quash a government ban on the use of the word “Allah” in its publications.

In January The Herald almost had its licence revoked over its use of “Allah”, or God, in its Malay-language section. However, authorities warned the paper not to use the word in future.

The rows stems from a decision by the Malaysian Cabinet last year that the word could only be used by Muslims, with the internal security minister issuing a ban on its use in a non-Muslim context.

“We are asking the court to say the decision was wrong and quash it and declare that The Herald can use the word ‘Allah’ in its publication,” the paper’s lead counsel, Porres Royan, told reporters after an initial hearing at the Kuala Lumpur High Court Friday.

Upon its licence renewal in January, the publishers assumed they could use “Allah” but are seeking to ensure their right to do so even after the permit expires in October.

“If we don’t comply with the decision beyond October, the government can refuse to renew our publication permit based on the earlier order,” Annou Xavier, a counsel for the paper, said.

Close to 200 Catholic supporters packed the courtroom Friday with the Church’s top representative in the country, Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, seated in the gallery.

High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan set aside next Tuesday to hear the arguments from both sides before deciding if the action can proceed.

Many Malaysians are concerned over the growing “Islamisation” of the country.

In recent months, there have been controversies over the construction of the world’s tallest Taoist Goddess of the Sea statue on Borneo island and the destruction of Hindu temples by local authorities.

The Herald, a tabloid newspaper, is circulated among the country’s 850,000 Catholics, with articles written in English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay.

MSN Malaysia News

My opinion

Because my county has practise an extremely strict censorship law on media such as in television programs, blogs, webpages, and the newspapers. I’m very affraid to give my personal thought in this article especially involving a religious matters. But oh yes, my thoughts will be secular but I don’t think they will accept it.

Well anyway, I’m still thinking that the local autorities should not destroy other religions holy place. Because it will only bring endless tensions between people with different religions and ethnics tension like already happened in an Israel-Palestine endless conflict in the Middle East and in the Western Hemisphere.

We as Malaysian should show a good example to the Middle Easterner and the Westerner that we proved that Buddists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and Christians can still lives together under the same roof.