Umno Selangor demands priest apologise over ‘Allah’, threatens church protests

By Boo Su-Lyn, The Malay Mail

Umno Selangor is threatening to protest outside all churches in Selangor this Sunday unless a senior Catholic priest apologises over his remark insisting on the religion’s use of “Allah”.

Gombak Umno head Abdul Rahim Kamarudin said that Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Catholic Church’s weekly paper, Herald, has until Saturday to withdraw his statement.

“This act is rude and we want him to apologise to the entire Muslim community,” Kota Raja Umno chief Kamaruzzaman Johari was reported as saying by Malay daily Utusan Malaysia today.

Selangor Umno information deputy chairman Datuk Abdul Shukor Idrus told the Umno-linked newspaper that Andrew should not have made such a remark, as the Selangor Sultan has decreed that non-Muslims in the state are not to describe God as “Allah” in their faiths.

“Looking at His Majesty’s decree on the ban, it is clear that it was meant to protect inter-racial and inter-religious harmony in Selangor,” Abdul Shukor was quoted as saying.

Newly-appointed Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (Jais) director Ahmad Zaharin Mohd Saad said last Thursday that letters will be sent to all churches in Selangor, asking them to comply with the state ban on non-Muslims from using 35 Arabic words and phrases, including “Allah”, which are listed under the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988.

Lawrence previously criticised the Jais plan to compel churches in the state to stop using the Arabic word for God, and said the Catholic Church would not abide by such a directive.

“You cannot just simply impose a law and say you cannot do this. What authority does Jais have over Christians?” he said when contacted by The Malay Mail Online on Friday.

Viola De Cruz Silva, president of the Catholic Lawyers’ Society, said yesterday that Jais’ actions appeared to be a concerted attempt to persecute Christianity, a minority religion in the majority-Muslim country.

Andrew Khoo, chairman of the Bar Council’s human rights committee, said last Sunday that the churches could take Jais to court for prohibiting Christians from referring to God as “Allah” in their religious practices, as such a ban is unconstitutional.

He also questioned if the Selangor 1988 enactment has gone beyond the ambit of Article 11(4) of the Federal Constitution that restricts the propagation of other religious doctrines among Muslims.

The lawyer pointed out that the Selangor 1988 enactment says in its preamble that it is based on Article 11(4) of the Federal Constitution, but noted that the enactment does not specifically limit its prohibition on the Arabic words to the context of non-Muslim proselytisation among Muslims.

The tussle over “Allah” arose in 2008 when Catholic newspaper Herald was barred by the Home Ministry from using the Arabic word.

The Catholic Church had contested this in court and won a High Court decision in 2009 upholding its constitutional right to do so.

Putrajaya later appealed the decision and successfully overturned the earlier decision when the Court of Appeal ruled this October that “Allah” was not integral to the Christian faith.

The Catholic Church has since the October ruling appealed to the country’s top court for clarity on the religious row that has drawn deep lines between Malaysia’s non-Muslim minorities and its 60 per cent Muslim population, with the Federal Court fixing February 24 next year to hear the application for appeal.