KOTA KINABALU, Oct 3 — Sabah and Sarawak clergymen are hopeful that the Court of Appeal decision this week allowing the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) to renew its “Allah” challenge will lead to more positive developments in the long drawn out tussle over the Arabic word for God.

Sabah Council of Churches president Bishop Thomas Tsen said the decision, although a small victory for now, takes Christians here one step closer to achieving their dream for religious freedom in Malaysia.

“This is good and encouraging news. I hope that the decision will mean the case will be heard fairly in the court of law and justice will be upheld so that we can practise our faith peacefully again,” he said when contacted by The Malay Mail Online.

“After all, here in Sabah and Sarawak, the Malay language is part of our Christian identity since the religion was introduced here more than 100 years ago. It’s synonymous with our faith and so is the Alkitab, which uses the words Allah and other terms without problems all this while.

“It has never been an issue before as it is part of our constitution that we have freedom of religion,” he said, adding that perhaps the Kota Kinabalu Declaration made by Sabah churches on September 17 recently had brought about positive change.

In the 30-point declaration, the churches had asked for the courts to abide by their oath of office and uphold the Federal Constitution which allows freedom of religion without interference by the government.

It also called for the freedom of religion as guaranteed by the Federal Constitution in the 18 and 20-point conditions of Sarawak and Sabah respectively in the Malaysia Agreement, claiming the legislative, executive and judiciary have “persistently and wilfully trampled upon such rights of people of other faiths by making laws and decisions that militate against such freedom.

Rev Dr Eu Hong Seng, chairman of the the Christian Federation of Malaysia, said the decision was a positive one and that the churches “will just let the court dispose the case”.

“Every opportunity to be heard is a positive development. We are praying everything will work out,” the leader of the umbrella body of most of the churches in Malaysia told Malay Mail Online.

Archbishop Datuk Bolly Lapok, chairman of the Association of Churches in Sarawak, called the appellate court’s decision “refreshing” and “welcome news”.

But the senior Anglican clergyman remained cautious in his outlook on the next stage of the court case, saying the judicial review decision “could still be one way or the other”.

Sabah Christian NGO Perpaduan Anak Negeri chairperson Esther Golingi in a Whatsapp message said it has been a long wait for the case to be heard but they were thankful for the good result having waited seven years from the time the dispute was filed in the courts.

“Still, justice delayed is justice denied, we are still waiting for justice in terms of religious freedom in our nation,” she said.

The Sabah SIB church filed its lawsuit on December 10, 2007, seeking to quash the Home Ministry’s decision to seize three boxes of Malay-language Christian educational books that contained the word “Allah”.

The books, imported from Indonesia, were seized at the international budget airport terminal in Sepang on August 15, 2007 while in transit. They were later returned to the Sabah church on January 25, 2008.

On Wednesday, a three-man panel of judges at the Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that the High Court was not bound by the appellate court’s decision that the use of “Allah” was not integral to the Christian faith, since the Federal Court has said that finding was a non-binding opinion.

The case will now be heard again in the High Court on October 16.