KUALA LUMPUR, 28 May 2009: Catholic weekly The Herald is still prohibited from using the word “Allah” in its Bahasa Malaysia version after the Kuala Lumpur High Court today quashed an application to stay its annual publication permit’s condition.
The Herald was seeking to quash the condition attached to its annual publication permit dated 7 Jan 2009 by the home ministry that the Catholic paper cannot use the word “Allah” in its Bahasa Malaysia section pending the court’s decision in its judicial review.
Judge Lau Bee Lan, at the Special Appellate and Powers division, heard submissions and delivered the decision today in chambers.
Deputy public prosecutor Andi Razalijaya A Dadi later told reporters that Lau dismissed Herald’s stay application because the state enactment made it an offence for non-muslims to use the word “Allah”.
“Allah” is among the restricted words “which are not to be associated with a non-Islamic religion”, under Section 9 (Schedule 1) of the Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Islamic Religions Enactment.
Read more here.
This article first appeared on Thursday, 28 May 2009 in www.theedgemalaysia.com. Used with permission.
MXV says
A sad, sad thing to happen to a newspaper I read and to its many readers whose primary language of worship is in BM.