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rfmcdonaldAs reported by Al Jazeera's Kate Mayberry, this court decision has more to do with a religiously-tinged ethnic conflict specific to Malaysia than with religious conflict, as such.
Malaysia's highest court has rejected the Catholic Church's application to appeal a ban on its use of the word "Allah" in the Malay-language section of its newspaper, the Catholic Herald, bringing to an end a protracted legal battle over constitutional rights.
The five-man panel, headed by Federal Court Judge Abdul Hamid Embong, on Wednesday dismissed unanimously the application, the second by the Church.
The bench said there was no indication of any "procedural unfairness" in the court's earlier decision not to allow the Church's appeal.
[. . .]
Malay-speaking Malaysians, mostly indigenous people from the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, have long used "Allah" as the Malay translation for "God", but in 2008 the government threatened to withdraw the paper's permit if it continued using the word.
The Catholic Church sought a judicial review and the High Court ruled in 2009 that it was Malay-speaking Christians' constitutional right to use the word, which is widely used by Christians in Indonesia and much of the Middle East.
