A Malaysian court ruled on Monday that a Christian newspaper may not use the word “Allah” to refer to God, a landmark decision on an issue that has fanned religious tensions and raised questions over minority rights in the mainly Muslim country.

The unanimous decision by three Muslim judges in Malaysia’s appeals court overturned a 2009 ruling by a lower court that allowed the Malay language version of the newspaper, The Herald, to use the word Allah—as many Christians in Malaysia say has been the case for centuries.

“The usage of the word Allah is not an integral part of the faith in Christianity,” chief judge Mohamed Apandi Ali said in the ruling. “The usage of the word will cause confusion in the community.”   »»» www.irrawaddy.org

Malaysia is the only country to ever make such a ruling. The Qur’an very clearly teaches that Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship the God of Abraham, Moses, Muhammad and Jesus. The Aramaic word that Jesus used for God is “Elaha” and one of the Hebrew words for God is “Eloah”. Today, there are about 12 million Arabic-speaking Christians. They and their ancestors have been calling God “Allah” in their Bibles, hymns, poems, writings, and worship for over nineteen centuries.

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