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Friday, 13 March 2009

Bar Council threatened with action over online Allah poll

By Neville Spykerman- The Malaysian Insider

SHAH ALAM, March 12 — The Bar Council may face legal action from the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) for holding an online poll on the use of ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims in their publications.

Mais chairman Datuk Mohamad Adzib Mohd Isa said they were consulting their legal advisors on what action can be taken.

Mohamad said the word Allah was only for Muslims and the policy had been gazetted by the Non Muslim Religious Enactment 1988 and the Bar Council should adhere to the ruling.

He said it was wrong for non-Muslims to use the word Allah in their publications and they could face legal action under the enactment.

Two polls seeking public views on the use of Allah is currently being conducted on the Bar Council website.

The poll are “Does any one race e.g Muslims have an exclusive right to use the word ‘Allah’?” and “Should The Herald and other religious publications be allowed to use the term ‘Allah’?”

So far over more than 1,000 people have responded and the majority have voted that there was no exclusive right to the word and other publications should be allowed to use Allah.

Datuk Mohamad Adzib said the ban on the use of the word for non Muslims was to prevent confusion among Muslims on the concept of one God as Allah.

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