A MALAYSIAN appeals court has upheld a government ban against using "Allah" to refer to God in non-Muslim faiths.
"Allah" is the Arabic word for God and is commonly used in the Malay language to refer to God. But the Malaysian government insists that "Allah" should be exclusively reserved for Muslims because of concerns it would confuse Muslims and could be used to convert them.
Conservative Malaysian Muslim groups hailed today's verdict as necessary to safeguard the sanctity of Islam.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA 'TO SCRAP GOD, ALLAH' FROM COURT OATHS
However, Catholic Church representatives say it violates the religious rights of minorities in a country where authorities have been accused of unfairly championing Islamic causes for political gain.
In 2010, the high court in Malaysia declared that a Catholic newspaper, the Herald, could continue to use Allah in its Malay edition, since the people in Borneo that buy the paper have from time immemorial referred to God by that name.
The politically sensitive dispute triggered attacks on Malaysian churches and other places of worship in January 2010.
Two-thirds of Malaysians are Muslims and about 10 per cent of them are Christians.
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