Malaysia's government has pledged to challenge a court ruling that Christians have a constitutional right to use the word Allah to refer to God.
The High Court verdict Thursday has sparked small, peaceful protests by Muslim groups, raising fears of friction between the Malay Muslim majority and the large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, who mainly practice Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.
The Prime Minister's Department will file an appeal against the verdict, Jamil Khir Baharom, a Cainet minister responsible for Islamic affairs, said in a statement late Saturday.
He called for Muslims to respect the court decision and for all parties to be patient and allow the dispute to be resolved through the legal process.
The High Court's decision struck down a government ban on non-Muslims translating God as Allah in their literature. Minorities welcomed it as a blow against what many consider to be institutionalized religious discrimination.
The court ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed in late 2007 by The Herald, the Roman Catholic Church's main publication in Malaysia. The government ban had affected The Herald's Malay-language edition, read mostly by indigenous tribes who converted to Christianity decades ago.
The verdict has divided Muslim commentators. Some agree with the government's insistence that Allah is an Islamic word that should be used exclusively by Muslims, and that its use by other religions would be misleading. However, other Malaysian Muslim scholars say non-Muslims should be free to use the word.
Efforts by Christians to use Allah in Malay-language literature have been perceived by some Muslims "as a plot to convert Malay Muslims to Christianity," Anas Zubedy, a popular Muslim blogger on social and political issues, wrote after the court verdict, adding his support of the ruling.
Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Saturday the government should set strict conditions for the use of the word Allah to ensure the court verdict does not trigger religious tension, the national news agency Bernama reported.
"What I am afraid of is that the term 'Allah' might be used in such a way that could inflame the anger of Muslims, if (non-Muslims) were to use it on banners or write something that might not reflect Islam," it quoted Mahathir as saying.
Minorities often say heir constitutional right to practice religion freely has come under threat from the Malay Muslim-dominated government. The government denies any discrimination, but authorities recently confiscated 10,000 copies of Malay-language Bibles because they contained the word Allah.
