Any more appeal on ‘Allah’ decision an abuse of courts, says lawyer

Two retired archbishops of the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese, Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam (left) and Soter Fernandez (right), with lawyers at the Federal Court this morning. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, January 21, 2015.Anyone who seeks to review the Federal Court's decision today over the ban on the word "Allah" can be considered as abusing the powers of the court, a Chinese Muslim lawyer has said.

Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, who represents the Chinese Muslim Association of Malaysia, said today's decision should mark the end of the Catholic Church's legal bid to use the word "Allah" in its weekly publication, Herald.

"This decision should end the row over the word Allah, as, legally, the previous decision by the Federal Court should have been the end.

"I dare say if anyone files another application for a review, the applicant can be considered as abusing the court's powers," Haniff told The Malaysian Insider.

Earlier today, a five-man bench led by Tan Sri Abdull Hamid Embong unanimously held that there had been no procedural unfairness in the Federal Court's decision last year not to grant the Catholic Church leave to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal in October 14, 2013 had ruled that Herald could not use the word "Allah" as it could threaten national security, public order and cause confusion among the religions.

The Muslim Lawyers Association called on all parties to respect the Federal Court's decision to dismiss the Catholic Church's review application.

The association's president, Datuk Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, said the court had found that the applicants failed to prove any substantial or procedural unfairness in the Federal Court's earlier decision not to grant leave.

"In the Federal Court before this, when Muslims lose, we respect the judgment and we appeal through the existing avenue.

"4:3, the four who won, did so democratically. Even in an election, if one person leads by one vote, he is declared the winner," said Zainul.

He was referring to the four judges who sat on the Federal Court's seven-member panel that had dismissed the church's leave application in June last year.

In 2009, the High Court had declared that the decision by the home minister to ban Herald from using the word “Allah” was illegal, null and void.

The church, led by the then Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese Archbishop Emeritus Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam, had filed a judicial review application, naming the minister and the government as respondents.

High Court judge Lau Bee Lan had declared it unconstitutional to ban non-Muslims from using the word “Allah” provided it was not used to propagate their religion among Muslims.

But on October 14, 2013, the then Court of Appeal judge, Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali, allowed the government's appeal against the High Court decision, and held that the government had not violated the church’s constitutional rights.

"It is our common finding that the name ‘Allah’ was not an integral part of the Christian faith and practice," he had said.

A seven-member panel of Federal Court judges on June 23, 2014, dismissed the church's application for leave to appeal the Court of Appeal's decision.

Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria was among the four on the panel who dismissed the church's application, while three other judges dissented.

The other judges in the majority decision were Tan Sri Raus Shariff, Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin and Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar.

The dissenting judges were Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, Tan Sri Jeffrey Tan Kok Hwa and Datuk Zainun Ali.

Today, the five-member panel of Federal Court judges dismissed the Catholic Church's review application of the Federal Court's decision not to grant leave, marking the end of the Church's long battle to use the word "Allah" in its newsweekly.

Malaysia's battle over the use of the word "Allah" has attracted international attention, as well as ridicule, including from Islamic scholars abroad who hold that "Allah" is a generic name for God and has been used by both Muslims and non-Muslims, as the word predates Islam.

- TMI