The Christian Federation of Malaysia announced that it will continue to use the word “Allah” to refer to God in their printed Bibles, church services and gatherings, as today’s Federal Court ruling was only confined to the Herald, the Catholic newspaper.
CFM chairman Reverend Dr Eu Hong Seng said as the court had refused to grant the Catholic Church leave to appeal the ban on using “Allah” in the Herald, his organisation will treat the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal as being confined to only that particular case.
“We maintain that the Christian community continues to have the right to use the word ‘Allah’ in our Bibles, church services and Christian gatherings in our ongoing ministry to our Bahasa Malaysia-speaking congregation, as we have done all this while,” he said in a statement today, as reported by The Malaysian Insider.
He added that this was guaranteed by the Attorney-General himself, who said last October 20 that the case was only meant to refer to the Herald‘s use of the word “Allah”.
“As legal adviser to the Malaysian government, we will hold him (A-G Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail) and the government of Malaysia to that position.
“There are other pending cases in the courts that would involve the matter. We will have to see whether these will provide alternative avenues to uphold and defend freedom of religion and freedom of religious expression in Malaysia,” he said.
The CFM, Eu said, was “extremely disappointed” with today’s Federal Court decision, adding that simple justice would have meant the appeals process to go through.
“We continue to maintain that the decision of the Court of Appeal, and its reasoning in arriving at their decision, were so critically flawed in so many respects.
“Simple justice would have mandated an appeal, to rectify the many incorrect and inaccurate statements and observations of the Court of Appeal that led to its decision,” he said.
See Also:
Reader Interactions