Minister says no to dropping ‘Allah’ appeal

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 – Minister for Islamic Affairs Senator Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom is adamant that the government should not rescind the ban on non-Muslims from using the word “Allah” despite public regret by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in direct charge of the Islamic Affairs Department (Jakim) stressed that the issue must be settled through the proper legal process.

“We are currently waiting for the court to decide on its position because we don’t know want many public perceptions which will make it hard for us to make a proper evaluation and consistent in our explanation. So we are waiting for the court to settle the issue,” Jamil Khir (pic) told reporters after attending meet-the-people session at Muadz Bin Jabal Mosque in Setiawanga here.

Yesterday, Hishammuddin said his predecessor should not have banned the word “Allah” from being used by the Catholic Church and added that the decision will continue to haunt his ministry “for a very long time.”

“In this ministry, it is a zero-sum game. We are [now] in an uncharted landscape which will haunt us for a very long time.

“We should have let the sleeping dogs lie. It was triggered by those that believed that the word ‘Allah’ should not be used in Sabah and Sarawak,” Hishammuddin said during the Fourth Annual Malaysian Student Leaders Summit.

Earlier MCA released a statement urging Hishammuddin to use his authority to quash the ban and said that Barisan Nasional (BN) must stop the ruling from further polarising the public.

Former home minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar had imposed the word ban on the Church’s newspaper, The Herald, two years ago.

Syed Hamid had temporary allowed the conditional use of the word “Allah”, only to rescind the government gazette later.

He had then cited fears that the use of word outside an Islamic context would cause confusion to Muslims.

The DAP’s Lim Kit Siang also called on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to end the long-drawn out court dispute and said that dropping the appeal would “demonstrate the government’s seriousness and commitment to resolve the issue through inter-religious dialogue.”

The Catholic Church had taken the home minister to court early last year, challenging the ban slapped on its weekly newspaper, The Herald, after the ministry threatened to revoke its annual publishing permit.

In a landmark judgment last New Year’s Eve, High Court judge, Datuk Lau Bee Lan ruled the Catholic Church has the constitutional right to use the word and that it was not exclusive to the religion of Islam, as the ministry had claimed.

But the home ministry filed an appeal against the High Court decision in February and won a stay, preventing the Church from using the word until the case is dealt with in the Court of Appeal.

However Jamil refused to comment on Hishammuddin’s statement and confirmed that he will be meeting with his Cabinet colleague to discuss on the matter.

“I have to look at the statement because there might be meaning which we need to discuss with Datuk Seri Hishammuddin,” he added.