PUTRAJAYA, Jan 21 ― Out of legal options to pursue the right to print the word “Allah” in the Catholic Church’s weekly Herald, the paper’s editor Father Lawrence Andrew said today that he will still publish in Malay.

Lawrence, who has been part of the legal dispute for five years, said that the Catholic Church has a sizeable number of Malay-speaking members, which the Christian community said have been using the Arabic word for God over centuries.

“Definitely we have a sizeable number of Bumiputera Christians in Sabah, Sarawak, in Semenanjung, we have Peranakan Nyonya Baba, we have Orang Asli, all of them need means of communication.

“You can’t tell me not to use Bahasa. No one can say that, it’s against the law of the country, against the crux of our nation, against the way of muhibbah, so we will continue to publish Herald in Malay,” he told reporters here in an immediate reaction today.

He did not specify, however, if the Malay section of the paper will use the word “Allah”.

Earlier this afternoon, the Federal Court again rejected the Catholic Church’s bid for the apex court to hear its appeal on its constitutional right to use “Allah”, marking an end to remaining legal avenues in the case.

The decision was made unanimously by the five-judge panel that was hearing the application today.

The legal dispute has been in the courts for the last five years after the Home Ministry banned the publication of the word “Allah” in the Catholic Church’s weekly paper Herald’s Bahasa Malaysia section in 2007.

In the long trek to today’s review hearing, the Catholic Church first tasted victory when it won its case in a landmark High Court ruling in 2009.

But when the matter was later brought before the Court of Appeal, the ruling was overturned.

The church then filed for leave to appeal the appellate court’s decision, but this was rejected in a narrow 4-3 decision at the Federal Court on June 23 last year.

The Catholic Church’s lawyers applied last September for a rare review of the Federal Court’s refusal to hear its appeal, arguing that there was “procedural unfairness” and that it had decided on legal issues not raised by any of the parties involved in the case.

The Catholic Church also argued that its case was an important constitutional issue, especially on the rights of minorities in Malaysia but claimed the Federal Court had failed to answer key constitutional questions including Article 3 and Article 11.

There was light police presence outside the Federal Court today and a small part of the entrance was cordoned off, but no protesters were spotted.

The courtroom was packed today, with 17 lawyers holding watching briefs for over 16 bodies including Christian organisations, the Catholic Lawyers Association, the Bar Council and Commonwealth Lawyers Association.

Representatives from the US Embassy were also present to observe the case, which was also attended by the Catholic Church’s former leaders of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, namely Archbishop Emeritus Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam and Archbishop Emeritus Anthony Soter Fernandez.

The Herald case is crucial as it may have bearings on other cases involving the word “Allah” ― which some Muslims claim is exclusive to Islam, while Malay-speaking Bumiputera Christians have said they have been using it in their worship for generations.

Tomorrow, the Kuala Lumpur High Court will also hear the government’s bid to postpone the court order for the Home Ministry to return eight private “Allah” compact discs (CD) to Sarawakian Christian Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, until the end of its appeal.

The High Court is also set to hear a case involving another case of seizure of Christian materials containing the words “Allah” from the Sabah Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) church, but no date has been fixed yet.