Malaysia’s top court ruled Monday that non-
Muslims cannot use the word “Allah” to refer
to God.
In a 4-3 judgment, the Federal Court rejected
a challenge by the Roman Catholic Church to
consider the rights of all minorities in the
largely Muslim nation and upheld a
government ban on the use of the word.
Most Christians in Malaysia worship in
English, Tamil or various Chinese dialects, and
refer to God in those languages but some
Malay-speaking people on Borneo island have
no other word for God but “Allah,” a Malay
word derived from Arabic.
The government says Allah should be reserved
exclusively for Muslims, who make up nearly
two-thirds of the country’s 29 million people.
If other religions use the term, that could
confuse Muslims and lead them to convert
away from Islam, it claims.
The controversy has provoked violence in
Malaysia.
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