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More Christian bodies have come out to criticise the Federal Court decision today to dismiss the church's leave application to appeal the "Allah" ban in Herald, with the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) saying it was a regressive decision.

CCM general-secretary Dr Hermen Shastri (pic) said the government should realise that it was their own citizens using Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia. "The court decision is a sad day of regress as far as constitutional guarantee for religious freedom is concerned," he told The Malaysian Insider today. Read more »

The editor of Herald Father Lawrence Andrew said they will wait for the written judgment of the Federal Court before deciding the next course of action.

The Federal Court dismissed the Catholic Church’s application for leave to appeal the ban on the use of the word “Allah” in its weekly publication. Read more »

The Christian Federation of Malaysia is naturally extremely disappointed that the Federal Court has refused leave for The Roman Catholic Church to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal in The Herald case.

We continue to maintain that the decision of the Court of Appeal, and its reasoning in arriving at their decision, were so critically flawed in so many respects. Simple justice would have mandated an appeal, to rectify the many incorrect and inaccurate statements and observations of the Court of Appeal that led to its decision. Read more »

Despite a court order to locate and return a child in an inter-faith custody battle, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar (pic) maintained his earlier stand that police will not comply with it as there were two conflicting verdicts in the case.

The Inspector-General of Police said he will not act on the Ipoh court order instructing the police to reunite Prasana Diksa with her Hindu mother M. Indira Ghandi. Indira’s ex-husband, Muslim convert Muhammad Ridzuan Abdullah, had secured custody of the child from the Syariah court. Read more »

Catholic weekly, The Herald, has failed to get leave from the Federal Court to challenge the Home Ministry over the ban on the use of the word “Allah”.

Chief Justice Ariffin Zakaria, who chaired a seven-man panel on Monday, held this in a majority decision. This is the first time that such a large panel has sat to hear and determine the application for leave. Read more »

State religious authorities must return to Islam's true teachings and ensure interfaith harmony is preserved in the country, the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMMF) said, in light of the ongoing Bible tussle between Islamic bodies and Christians in Selangor.

GMMF chief executive officer Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said non-Muslims should feel safe living in a country governed by Muslims, as Islam was a religion‎ of peace. Read more »

A constitutional lawyer has criticised the Selangor government for its stand in getting a court order before releasing the Bibles seized from the Bible Society of Malaysia, saying that it was "wrong and irresponsible".

Lawyer Tommy Thomas also said that the state government's refusal to act displayed a weak and indecisive leadership. He explained that since the seizure of the Bibles was an executive decision, the return of the holy books must be done by the executive itself, without having to drag in the courts. Read more »

The statements of Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, border on the absurd with his bizarre interpretations of the laws and court decisions of this country.

IS this Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, for real, because he seems to have chalked up a record for contradicting what the Cabinet has decided and practised? Read more »

Malaysia’s highest court ruled today that the Catholic newspaper The Herald has no grounds to appeal a lower court’s decision preventing it from using the word “Allah” to refer to God.

The landmark decision on a divisive issue that has fuelled intense debate and heightened religious tensions in the country, brings to an end the Catholic Church’s challenge in the Malaysian court system. Read more »

The Malaysian Bar supports the Attorney General’s decision not to prosecute the Bible Society of Malaysia (“BSM”) over the more than 300 copies of the Alkitab (Bahasa Malaysia bible) and Bup Kudus (Iban bible) that contained the word “Allah” and that were seized by Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (“JAIS”) on 2 January 2014.

The Malaysian Bar views with much concern reports of the refusal by Majlis Agama Islam Selangor (“MAIS”) and JAIS to abide by the findings of the Attorney General and to comply with his request that JAIS take consequential and appropriate action in accordance with the law. Read more »