Source: news.bbc.co.uk
UNITED KINGDOM, December 31, 2009: After the authorities had insisted that Allah in the Malay language refers only to the God in Islam, which could only be sued by Muslims, a court in Malaysia has ruled that other faiths have a constitutional right to use the word Allah to refer to God.
Ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Herald, a publication of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, in 2007, the High Court said a government ban on non-Muslims using the world was unconstitutional.
The BBC’s Jennifer Pak in Kuala Lumpur said some Muslim groups suspect the Catholic Church is seeking to encourage Muslims to convert to Christianity – a move which is illegal in Malaysia.
More than half of Malaysia’s population is Muslim but the large Chinese and Indian communities are mainly Christian, Buddhist or Hindu.