A panel of judges in Malaysia ruled on Wednesday that The Herald, a Catholic weekly newspaper, has no basis to challenge an earlier federal court order to stop using the word “Allah” in its pages to name God.
The Herald’s legal odyssey began in 2009 when the government said the newspaper would risk its publishing license if it continued to print “Allah” to describe God. The Herald sued and won at the first court, but lost on appeal in October 2013. A federal court ruled in June 2014 that it would not grant the Catholic church permission to appeal the decision. Wednesday’s decision by a five-judge panel said there had been no procedural unfairness in that June 2014 decision.
Lawyers on both sides of the case appeared to agree that the court decision affects only the Herald, and that the wider use of “Allah” by non-Muslims throughout Malaysia remains an open question.
Source: Malaysia Insider