KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Political considerations may have prompted the Selangor Ruler to decree a blanket ban against the use of “Allah” by non-Muslims as such limitations are not rooted in Islamic theology, Malaysian Bar president Christopher Leong has suggested.

Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah had yesterday renewed his decree barring the Arabic word for God to all non-Muslims in the country’s wealthiest state and for an immediate stop to usage in the Malay language Bible al-Kitab and the Catholic weekly, Herald, in a move set to complicate Putrajaya’s bid to calm east Malaysian unease over the religious row.

“(It was) a decision that is not supported by Islamic theology or history. Very sad. It may possibly be supported by political consideration in Malaysia. It is therefore disappointing,” Leong told The Malay Mail Online in a text message.

“Ever since the decision by the Court of Appeal in the Herald case, comments from UAE, Indonesia, Bahrain, UK have been that the prohibition on use of the word ‘Allah’ is not part of the Islamic theology,” he added.

Several celebrated Islamic scholars around the world have weighed in on the “Allah” dispute, which appears to be unique to Malaysia and which hit international headlines last month following an unprecedented court ruling upholding the federal government’s move to block a local Catholic newspaper from publishing the word to also refer to the Christian god.

Prolific Turkish writer Harun Yahya — whose real name is Adnan Oktar and who had achieved cult status among Muslim here for his rejection of Darwinism — urged Putrajaya to reverse its ban on the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims here, saying the decision was “based on illogical and theologically unacceptable reasoning”.

American Muslim religious scholar, Dr Reza Aslan — who has written two books on Islam and one on Christianity — said it was “almost a blasphemous thought to think that Allah has a name”.

“Allah is a construction of the word al-Ilah... Al-Ilah means ‘The God’. Allah is not the name of God,” Aslan told radio station BFM last month.

Swiss-Muslim theologian Dr Tariq Ramadan, who lectures on contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University, added his voice to criticism of the Malaysian government’s stand that “Allah” cannot be used by followers of other faiths as it will cause confusion to Muslims.

Lawyer Andrew Khoo, who co-chairs the Bar Council’s Human Rights Committee, believes the Selangor Sultan may not have been fully advised by the state’s Islamic authorities, leading him to only hear one side of the issue.

“All I would say is that he has not been properly advised... Perhaps he had only heard from one side. I think it would be appropriate for His Royal Highness to talk to more people, like other communities,” Khoo told The Malay Mail Online in a brief interview.

“I don’t think he has talked to the Muslim community, but just the people who control Islam, people who manage Islam in the state. That is not the same as talking to Muslims.”

The decision by the state Ruler comes after a discussion with the Selangor Royal Council on Monday, which decided that Selangor citizens should abide by the Selangor Non-Islamic Religion (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988 which applies to every religion or race.

Several members in the Bar Council, which is the executive body of the Malaysian Bar, have been reported to voice their support for the Church to appeal against a recent appellate court ruling, which had overturned a 2009 landmark High Court’s decision that the Arabic word for god was not exclusive to Islam.

In October, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Ministry’s decision to ban the use of the word in the Herald was justified, as the use of the word “Allah” was not integral to the practice of the Christian faith.

The ruling — which overturned an earlier High Court decision that the ban was unconstitutional — has since sparked confusion over the use of the word by Christians in their worship, especially with conflicting opinions within the government itself on how far the ruling would affect practising Christians.

Since the ruling, churches in Sabah and Sarawak have become more vocal in pressing for their right to use the term that they say is entrenched in the 20- and 18-point agreements with the two states, insisting they will continue their age-old practice of referring to God as “Allah” in their worship and in their holy scriptures.

The Catholic Church has since appealed to the country’s top court this week for clarity on the religious row that has drawn deep lines between Malaysia’s non-Muslim minorities and its 60 per cent Muslim population.

In its Federal Court filing sighted by The Malay Mail Online, the Church submitted a list of 26 questions that concern the Constitution, administrative law and the general conduct of the courts to decide on the dispute that has been left simmering for the last five years after the Home Ministry barred the publication of the word “Allah” in the Bahasa Malaysia section of Catholic weekly, Herald.

Several ministers also said recently that the 10-point solution issued by Putrajaya in 2011 — which allows the printing, importation and distribution of the Al-Kitab, the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Christian bible, containing the word “Allah” — should stand, despite the appellate court ruling.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak also said previously that the ruling would not affect Sabah and Sarawak, while separately another Cabinet minister claimed that Christians from the Borneo states could also use the word in peninsula Malaysia.

They were silent, however, on whether the Herald ruling meant the publication could be distributed in Sabah and Sarawak.

According to a 2010 census, Muslims are Malaysia’s largest religious group, followed by Buddhists. Christians are the third largest at 2.6 million, which comes up to about 10 per cent of the entire Malaysian population.

Bumiputera Christians, who form about 64 per cent or close to two-thirds of the Christian community in Malaysia, have used the word “Allah” when praying and speaking in the national language and their native tongues for centuries.