http://www.heraldmalaysia.com/news/storydetails.php/'Allah'-decision-on-Dec-30/3570-2-1
'Allah' decision on Dec 30 Published On December 17 , 2009 By Debra Chong KUALA LUMPUR: Peace on earth aside, all he wants for Christmas is to be allowed to use the word "Allah" to refer to the Christian God. Father Lawrence Andrew who edits Malaysia's only Catholic paper, Herald, is praying for another miracle this Christmas and will know if he gets it two days before the next decade dawns and the 2009 publishing permit expires. The High Court here today fixed Dec 30 to deliver its decision on whether the Catholic Church can publish the word "Allah" to also mean "God" outside the Muslim context, after a full morning spent on submissions. The church is challenging the state's decision banning it from using the word "Allah" in its paper as part of conditions for getting an annual publishing permit. Picking up from where they left off last evening, lawyers for the government argued that not being allowed to use the word "Allah" in no way infringes the church's constitutional right to carry out its religious duty. Senior federal counsel Mahamad Naser Disa suggested that the church's "misunderstanding" and misuse of the word "Allah" would create confusion and raise religious tensions in the country. "Allah is the holy name and a special verse in Islam. Any deviation to the holy verse of Allah is an insult to the religion of the country and the Federal Constitution," he said, and asked the court to reject the church's challenge. "As far as the proper name Allah is concerned, it has absolutely no plural, reflecting the notion of the One and Only God whose Essence absolutely excludes the purport of consisting of three distinct co-eternal persons, whether in the imagination, in actuality, or in supposition," Mahamad Naser said, reading an exceprt from an article titled "Heresy Arises From Words Wrongly Used" published by the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (better known by its Malay acronym Ikim). "Furthermore, the fact that it is a proper noun alone renders erroneous the critical assumption that the term Allah belongs to a national language and is an Arabic derivative. "Indeed, for those who care enough to check the truth, such an absurd claim has long been debunked as inconsistent with the rules of the Arabic language itself by authorities like Ibn al-Barri, al-Layth and al-Khalil (in his Kitab al-'Ayn)," he added. Mahamad Naser repeated an earlier claim that the home minister's decision to bar Christians using the word "Allah" was in line with provisions protecting the "special position" of Islam enshrined in the Federal Constitution and which the entire government and the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong have sworn to uphold. The court also heard from the lawyer for the six state Islamic councils even though they have to be made a party in the suit. But Mubashir Mansor chose to argue solely on points of law in his bid to convince the court to reject the church's suit, unlike Mahamad Naser whose arguments seemed closer at times to theological debate. Pointing to clauses in Article 4 of the Federal Constitution., Mubashir said the church should not have argued that the anti-propagation laws passed by 10 states were "unconstitutional" because they needed to get permission from the Federal Court first before they could even raise the issue. He also stressed that the Constitution clearly restricts the freedom of religion, which the church had raised, under Article 11(4). "It is incorrect to say there is any discrimination against Christians," he added, countering the church's claim that the home minister's rule is biased. "The fact that Islam is placed as the official religion of the Federation and that there are restrictions that have been enacted under 11(4) does not mean that these provisions are an exercise of discrimination at all. "They are just to ensure that Islam as the official religion of the Federation is well-preserved and protected as is fortified by the oath taken by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong upon taking office," Mubashir said. The senior lawyer noted that the church was mistaken in its claim that Christianity pre-dates Islam because "all prophets, beginning from Adam (pbuh), were prophets of Islam, including Jesus (pbuh)." "It is not a battle of religions. It is just about what Malaysian law is under our Constitution and in our law on publication," Mubashir said. Counsel for the church, Benjamin Dawson, also seemed to agree with Mubashir's view, to a point. "This case is not about the attributes of Allah from the point of view of Islam, nor is it about the doctrine of trinity. It is about whether the minister can dictate to a religious group how they should call their God," Dawson summed up. Father Lawrence Andrew who edits the Catholic paper, Herald, and was present in court told The Malaysian Insider he is praying hard that the court's decision will be in his favour. Asked to comment on today's hearing, Andrew rejected the federal counsel's earlier claim that Arab Christians subscribe to a different view from Malaysian Christians who believe in the concept of God in three aspects - "God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit". "All Christians the world over believe in the Nicene creed, which came out of the Council of Nicaea in the year AD 325," said Andrew, referring to the concept of the trinity. Courtesy: TheMalaysianInsider
