Kuala Lumpur:
In a landmark ruling, a court in Malaysia on Thursday said that Christians in the country have a constitutional right to use the word "Allah" when referring to God, reversing a government ban on non-Muslims using the word.
The court was ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Herald, newspaper of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, in 2007 after the Home Ministry had approved its publication permit on condition that the usage of the word "Allah" was prohibited.
The authorities had insisted that Allah was an Islamic word which could only be used by Muslims and said they had banned the usage of the word on grounds of national security and to avoid misunderstanding and confusion among Muslims.
In her decision, Justice Lau Bee Lan said that Christian have the "constitutional right to use Allah," The Star newspaper reported.
The Catholic weekly Herald is now free to use the word Allah" in its publication and declared the ban as "illegal, null and void".
The verdict means that the Bahasa Malaysia-speaking community of the Christian faith can now continue to freely use the word Allah, a word that has been in their worships and instructions in the faith without any interference from the authorities, it ruled.