By Lisa Goh
The Star
31.12.09
KUALA LUMPUR: The Catholic weekly Herald is now free to use the word “Allah” in its publication after the High Court quashed the Home Minister’s prohibition against it using the word, declaring the order as “illegal, null and void.”
In her decision, Justice Lau Bee Lan also declared that under Article 3(1) of the Federal Constitution, applicant Titular Roman Catholic Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam had the constitutional right to use “Allah” in Herald in the exercise of his right that religions other than Islam might be practised in peace and harmony in the country.
She further ruled that the Constitution, which states Islam as the country’s religion, did not empower the minister to make such a prohibition.
“In pursuant to Article 10, the applicant also has the right to use the word ‘Allah’ in the Herald in the exercise of his right to freedom of speech and expression.” she said in her oral judgment Thursday to a packed courtroom.
Justice Lau ruled as grounds for her judgement that both the respondents – the minister and the Malaysian government – had failed throughout the trial to prove how the use of the word “Allah” could threaten national security.
On Jan 7 last year, the Home Ministry had approved the Herald’s publication permit on condition that the usage of the word “Allah” was prohibited and the word “Limited” (Terhad) be endorsed on its front page to mean that it must be circulated only to Christians.
The minister had prohibited the usage on grounds of national security and to avoid misunderstanding and confusion among Muslims.
The Archbishop, as Herald’s publisher, had filed an application on Feb 16 for a judicial review to seek a declaration that the minister’s decision for the prohibition was illegal and that the word “Allah” was not exclusive to Islam.
Representing the Archbishop were counsel Porres P. Royan and S. Selvarajah while senior federal counsel Datuk Kamaludin Md Said stood for the respondents.
Following the ruling, Kamaludin sought a clarification for the declaration to be only confined for the permit in question, which was for the period from Jan 1 to Dec 31 last year, and not future permits.
“It does not relate to an order or decision relating to future permits,” he said, adding that future permits would require a fresh application.
However, Royan argued that the permit for the period between Jan 1 and Dec 31 this year had already been issued, subjected to the same condition pending the court’s determination on the matter.
“The order speaks for itself. I believe the minister will be bound by the words he has used and that he will respect the court’s decision.
“Of course, they have other remedies. The court has granted declarations to allow the use of the word ‘Allah’ that must bind the parties,” he said.
Kamaludin then said he would seek direction from the minister on whether they would file a stay of execution application or an appeal.
In an immediate reaction, Herald’s editor Father Andrew Lawrence told the press that this was a “long-awaited” decision, hailing it as a “landmark case for our nation”.
Why the silly fight over the use of one single word which refers to the Almighty? The Almighty will remain almighty, whatever name He is called by!
As Archbishop, Murphy Pakiam should have more important things to do than to spend the church resources over a man-made word for God. God lies in the heart and soul and not in a word. Murphy Pakiam has too much pride and is too status conscious and is known to mix more with the elite than the poor. He is also not wise in pursuing this matter as the Catholics have lived for generations in Malaysia without the need to use this word. His actions will only stir hatred and suspicion towards the Catholic community. If any untoward incident occur, he must take full responsibility for it. He should humble himself. IMO Soter Fernandez would have been a better choice as archbishop.
In any case, the court of appeal will reverse the decision within days. Wanna bet?
I think so, since the court of appeal has the habit of reversing high court decisions which the judges know how to apply the law. It would be interesting to know how they can make non-legal technical judgement, such as the judgement did not contain non-Bahasa Malaysia words.
Unfortunatelly we will hear that Justice Lau would be leaving the Bench soon, since she cannot hope to be allowed to interpret laws as expected of judges; they were supposed to be UMNO lawyers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIrxdsd2Cew
Threaten national security ? How old is Malaysia ? 52 years old. Or less depends on where you come from. Actually it is YHWH with no vowels. So only He knows how to pronounce. Humans put vowels in so that they can say the word. Bottom line is it all has something to do with your heart.
In the whole world….only UMNO BARU is the appointed gate keeper of the Islamic religion with the rewards to grow fat…with false titles..and live in mansions.
The law case is a joke…with mud pies thrown at their faces.
In any case, the court of appeal will reverse the decision within days. Wanna bet? (#3 by negarawan)
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You are right.
Archbishop, Murphy Pakiam, should hold back his celebration for now until the court of appeal makes its decision.
UMNO’s men are everywhere controlling the country’s institutions.
UMNO has the choice of whether to go to the Court of Appeal to win round 2 or to lose 850,000 odd votes from the Catholics in the 13th General Election.
It is not the end of Malaysia. We still see a bit of justice around
Don’t be too sure, and don’t be a simpleton.
with mud pies thrown at their faces.)) monsterball
No you are wrong, soon your face will be full of mud, don’t be smug. UMNO and BN are smarter and more cunning than you for sure.
Uncivilised people still exist in our society. God must be crazy to allow them to fight over such a trivial matter. BTW does God actually exist. If so why are human stil fighting and behaving like animals and cave-men? God only exist in their mind.
Did this … violate any law? How does he know the appeal court WILL reverse the decision? Is he saying he will be judge hearing the appeal or he has means to bribe or influence the judge?
Justice Lau Bee Lau has dropped a very encouraging court judgement in relation to freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
All men shall be allowed total freedom to choose an expression of their own choice for the deity whom they worship! No one, including the Government or the Politician, should attempt to claim that he/she has the patent rights over a single word expression unless the word has really been registered with the relevant authority for a patent right. I don’t think anybody will be allowed to register the word “Allah” as his/her own patented property. Therefore, all people shall be free to use the word “Allah” to express their deity as and when they like!
The Home Minister shall make a wise decision to waive the rights of filing an appeal to court of appeal for this litigation case!
Yeap that bit of justice will be wiped out soon by a higher court. Negarawan said God lies in the heart and soul and not in a word. True,well said but why you need the word “ALLAH” for yourself and prohibited others to use it ?. You are indeed a great hypocrite.
Yes….daily justice seems to me shown.
UMNO will keep on loosing votes.
How can the win votes…with Najib nonsense?
Yes, we all know that the “Court of Appeals” will overturn this decision…Malaysian Justice!
Negarawan in your comment you said that “the Catholics have lived for generations in Malaysia without the need to use this word” The fact is that the word Allah has been used in Malaysia for “generations” there are a lot of prayer and hymn books in written in Malay and the Sarawak / Sabah ethnic languages where the word Allan has been used. Some of there books date back centuries old, long before the formation of Malaysia. Does Negarawan want these publications to be replaced too because you say that “God lies in the heart and soul and not in a word.”
You said that the “actions will only stir hatred and suspicion towards the Catholic community”. When one’s right, as expected of basic human dignity, is being infringed into, the victimized has a right to his personal defense. This is also a natural law which is expected of every living being, even more so of a human. In defending the word Allah for use in the Kedazan version of the Herald, Archbishop Murphy Pakiam is defending the universal right for the freedom of religion as also recognized in the Malaysia constitution. If in defending this basic right, the Archbishop may cause “hatred and suspicion”. Therefore, are you suggesting that the Archbishop should lie very low and do nothing about the matter in hand? In doing so he would be “closing one eye” to the impending restrictions by the Barisan National government concerning the freedom of religion in this country. You must remember that the ban on the use of the word Allah is just one of the many thing that the government does in recent years to suffocate the freedom of religion in this country. So now it is the word Allah what is next? We already have a lot of problem with building churches, marriages between members of faithful from different religion with those of the government’s favored religion, conversion of minors, Catholic schools, teaching of religion and what next. Are you suggesting the Archbishop should bend over backward in order to avoid “stirring up suspicion and hatered”?
We are talking about the Catholics this time but what about the other religions in this country? It looks like their rights are also being trampled upon. Do you want to see that happen?
You said, “IMO Soter Fernandez would have been a better choice as archbishop.” and “Murphy Pakiam has too much pride and is too status conscious and is known to mix more with the elite than the poor.” My friend, Negarawan, with these statements, it looks like you have pre-judge the Archbishop as a person and you are not interested in the facts of this particular case. I am sorry for you. In becoming a progressive nation, may God remove all prejudices and clouded thinking among us.
First, macc not allowed to “interview” witnesses after office hours.
Then on appealing, macc allowed to “interview” witnesses after office hours.
“Appeal” means “Reversal” in Bolehland
Ah lah, don’t lah b happy over this transient victory
Just an illusion 1, now u c it, now u don’t
Oredi Umno B, mayb even PAS n PKR, kaki r making noise
Hishamuddin has to evaluate between losing the votes of the Catholics or the right-wing Malays. We can judge UMNO’s conclusion based on whether or not they appeal the decision.
Being an atheist, I find it absolutely ridiculous that human ( are they really human?) should waste time and resources to fight over such matter. LOL…..
Yep, the COA will overturn this decision soon. Typical modus operandi.
But what galls me even more is you will have a retinue of BN ministers (mostly UMNO) who will parrot that of the cases brought against the Govt. 50% of the judgement went against them. But what they conveniently kept quiet is that the remaining 50% are COA cases in which all the judgements ended up in favour of the Govt. thus rendering the 50% of the lower court cases that judgement went agaisnt the Govt amounting to nothing in the end.
This is one of the silliest legal fight in the world, as there are hundreds (if not thousands) of languages in the world, who know what ala means in other languages??
ala-carte in French = ??
ala in Shanghainese = I, ??
ala in Punjabi = God ??
ala in many other languages = an exclamation ??
The issue is where will Najib stand on this. On want hand he can put his stamp on this issue to gain aknowledgement of non-UMNO/BNers.. While it will make make the ultras complain, he can afford it now. The problem is that if things go wrong like a slowdown before 13th GE, it can haunt him.
Does Najib even have a little bit of real guts? I think not. At the core, the man is soft and a wimp. He will avoid it – no comment etc..
Unlike chedet.com where moderation doesn’t take a few hours, this blog seems like there is no moderator!
Spell it backward = “HALLA”
Mix it up you get “Halal”
Mix it further ” Ah All”, “All Ah”, “A Hall”, etc
Try to spell “GOD” backward
Anakbaram, as you said, the Catholics & Christians in Sabah & Sarawak have been using the word “Allah” for Generations. Just shows what retards like Negarawan know! Negarawan tries to show he knows a lot by talking about Soter Fernandez. Soter retired years ago. It was not a competition between Murphy Pakiam & Soter for the “job” of Archbishop!
What the Herald is trying to do is “fight” for the right to publish it’s Bahasa Malaysia section using the word Allah for the benefit of it’s Bahasa Malaysia speaking Cathoilcs (i.e. in Sabah & Sarawak).
And lastly, the Catholics & Christians in Indonesia & Brunei have been using the word Allah for years without any problems from the Muslim Authorities in those countries. Now what does this say about barindead toads like Negarawan?!
Don’t waste your time trying to debate spastics like Negarawan…you are just wasting your time.
Hi Dipoh bous,please watch your mouth,least you get into hot soup.
The word Allah, if used in non-muslim publications, will not cause confusion among Muslims. Muslims should know that it is the one god of the Abrahamic traditions that is being referred to; after all, muslims believe that Islam is a fulfillment of Christianity!
Of course all Muslims are, at least, vaguely aware that Christians believe in God who is The Father, The Son (JESUS), and The Holy Spirit). To Muslims this is a “heresy”. But this is merely a matter of controversy between the religions, not one of confusion.
If there really were confusion as to which God was being referred to when “Allah” is used by non Muslims, just one or two lessons in religious classes or in mosque sermons would serve to dispel it.
Don’t be shocked to hear that in Islamic countries, christians as well as muslims call the one god, “Allah”, without any confusion!
Your dog or for that matter any animal can be your best friend. In fact between an animal and a human being, an animal makes a better friend. So if a dog can be unquestioning faithful to you, do you still want to be cruel to it ? True Muslims would respect Jesus Christ because He is Prophet Isa according to the Quran. A linguistic professional would explain to you about why there are words. Simply put, without a word or words, you cannot communicate to the next person. Or you might miscommunicate.
What next, is Murphy Pakiam going to seek a patent for the word “Allah”?
Seriously, the true faithful will not bother over semantics. What’s in the heart and soul is more important. A generic word like “Tuhan” is good enough. A matured religious leader would educate its followers rather than bring small issues to the courts or streets. The more learned and wise archibishops before him had never made this an issue, as there were more important matters of faith to attend to. Not waste the church resources and loose the goodwill of other communities in Malaysia. Live and let live.
Kudos to the people who won the case and congratulations to Christians and Catholics in the country. I find it very amusing that the moslems are refusing to accept the verdict of the high court.
Some of them state that this verdict will create a confusion amongst the moslems in the country and some also say that the word ‘Allah’ is very sacred to them and should not be used by infidels.
These kind of statements are akin to tantrums you would expect from a child in primary school. There is no intellectual benefit or common sense in these arguments at all.
The word ‘Allah’ have been used by Christian Arabs way before the Moslem religion came into existence. Arab language is not malay language. If anyone should claim or have any issues it should be the Arabs not the Malays.
Don’t try and patent a word that has never been the sole proprietary ownership of anyone. If only those chaps who protested this verdict had at least a secondary school level education(one would assume) they would be literate enough to read about this. Once again i say i pity the fool.
whatever word is used for ALLAH why should anyone have the right to ban this or that?
Malaysia has regressed as a nation and this case is proof of that.
http://malaysiawatch4.blogspot.com/2010/01/malaysiakini-on-allah-conundrum-we-can.html
Malaysia has regressed as a nation and this case is proof of that.
http://malaysiawatch4.blogspot.com/2010/01/malaysiakini-on-allah-conundrum-we-can.html
testing the moderator
[caught by SPAM filter]
If it’s true that this court verdict will result in confusion, why is it that the Christian and Muslim Arabs themselves are not confused over this issue?
Fight set to continue over use of ‘Allah’
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 – The Prime Minister’s Department, with the cooperation of the Home Ministry, will appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision in allowing the Catholic weekly magazine, Herald, to use the word “Allah” in its publication.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/48281-fight-set-to-continue-over-use-of-allah-
Patenting it would be a good idea so that you guys do not have to scream and talk so loudly about it. But patenting it would have to go international. Patenting it would mean you are the very first person to come up with this word. No one else. Would you risk being accused of plagarism ? Or may be you would rather prefer being known for worshipping a moon god ? Is there anyone here to control the situation ? I ask again. Again professional linguist here ?
johnnypok, you should try and spell the highest title conferred by the Agong in this country (TUN) and see what you get!!!!!!
is the moderator asleep since 10:25am 2nd January 2010?
Just a word,these so-called holy people now want to demonstrate in the street to denoumce the high count’s verdict.They want the non -malays to respect the constitution but now are contradicting themselves..This now shows they are a real bunch of hypocrites.Lets see what the selangor CPO would about it .
correction……lets see what the selangor CPO would do about it.
Isn’t it strange that so far, we have not heard much of what the Christian bumiputras in Sabah & Sarawak have to say about this issue?
Surely, their opinion counts as much as their votes which had contributed much to the simple majority that had allowed UMNO’s BN to retain control of the federal government.
Well in the last illegal and bloody demo, they just mooed about.
Too few cops to control the cow-head incident.
What happened to the case?
I guess a few of those fellows who were not charged will be on active duty again.
Datuk Idris Jala is one of the very few good examples. Do you think he can say much now that he is in such a high position ? Does he not remind you all of Joseph who was made a governor later ? He could say this is what God has blessed him with. And the same man too, Joseph, would remind you all of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng too.
when you are in a den of wolves it is impossible to survive by trying to be a sheep!
Especially when the head wolves are all howling at the same time.
Actually there shld not be any joy as the case is doomed to fail at the outset
Just read the news after the so-called victory verdict
D gomen will continue 2 appeal n appeal
Until d Umno-correct verdict is given by a politcially-savvy judge
Pity d trusted Paul is no longer there 2 play his pivotal role
How to differentiate between the Allah in Islam and the Allah in Christianity???
Allah in Islam – One and only
Allah in Christianity – Holy Trinity; Father, Son & Holy Spirit e.g H2O in different forms i.e. ais, water and steam!!!
There’s no confusion unless one wants to be confused or to confuse others!!!
First, they try to ban others from using the word Allah, later, they will try to ban others from using any word in the Al-Quran!!!
I would never have the opportunity to become a Muslim in Malaysia even if I wanted to if I dont want to go against the law in the first place!!! How could I become a Muslim if I was not even allowed to mention the word Allah in the first place??? May be one day, they dont even allow others to read the Al-Quran for it is too holy for sinners to read it!!!
In Indonesia, the proper name of God is “Allah”, for both christians and muslims. There is no confusion or anger there against christians on account of this.
In West Malaysia, before Bahasa Malaysia came to be used widely, the use of “Allah” was exclusively confined to muslims. However, in the States of Sabah and Sarawak, both muslims and christians used “Allah”, without any problem or “confusion”.
After the formation of Malaysia and the influx of Christians from Sabah and Sarawak, coupled with the continued expansion of Bahasa Malaysia among Peninsular Malaysians, “Allah” came to be used by Christians as a logical development of Bahasa Malaysia in the Church.
Peninsular muslims need not feel offended or threatened. They should look at this issue from a broad perspective. Peninsular muslims must know that in all other muslim countries, christians use “Allah” without objection from muslims, even if they disagree with the christian idea of Allah.
However I agree that the constitutional guarantee against preaching of other religions to muslims, should be respected.
Marina M ahathir said those protesting against d court ruling obviously did not know enough about Is lam as a religion
Confident people do not get confused
Only weak n ignorant ppl get confused
Her father who frothed against d court ruling is one of them
it should not be an issue…