Malaysians protest over church`s use of `Allah`

Kuala Lumpur: Hundreds of Muslims today tried to storm the Justice Ministry building in the administrative capital of Putrajaya, a day after the Malaysia`s highest court postponed a decision on whether to hear the Catholic church`s bid to be allowed to use the Arabic word "Allah". The church is seeking to challenge a lower court`s ruling last year that forbids non-Muslims from using the Arabic "Allah" in the local Malay language to describe God.

The Federal Court has set up a seven-man panel for the first time to hear the civil dispute over the use of the word `Allah` by Catholic weekly?Herald in its Bahasa Malaysia edition. The panel yesterday delayed its decision on whether to allow a full hearing of the case, or whether the lower court`s verdict stands. It gave no date for the decision after hearing arguments from both sides. In 2009, the Catholic church filed a judicial review application against the Home Ministry and the government. It sought a declaration that the Ministry`s decision to prohibit the publication from using the word "Allah" was illegal. In December 2009, the High Court ruled that it was constitutional for the Herald to use the word "Allah" in its articles and allowed its application to quash the Home Ministry decision. In 2013, a three-man Court of Appeal bench reversed the high court ruling. The Court of Appeal ruled that the use of "Allah" was not an integral part of the faith and practice of Christianity. Abdul Rahman Mat Dali, the deputy president of a local NGO Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia, said he did not condone the actions of the crowd but understood their anger. Earlier, Human Rights lawyer Siti Kassim and several others turned up at ministry handing out flowers to those present. "The way we are going is very worrying and peace-loving Malaysians should speak up," she said. Malaysia is a Muslim majority country but has a 25 per cent of ethnic Chinese who are mostly Christians and Buddhists and eight per cent ethnic Indians who are mostly Hindus as part of its 27 million population. Indian-origin man fined for threatening to leak woman`s video Singapore: A Singapore court has fined an Indian-origin flight attendant Singapore Dollar 5,000 for threatening to upload a video clip of a woman stripping herself on the Internet. Kishenraj Rengaraj (22) admitted threatening to injure the reputation of the bartender and causing her alarm in January last year, The Straits Times reported today. Deputy Public Prosecutor Ailene Chou said the 21-year-old victim befriended with Kishenraj through a website and then exchanged mobile numbers in January last year. Kishenraj asked to meet her. The woman agreed for the meeting and demanded Singapore Dollar 300 (USD 237) from the youth to pay her rent. On Jan 10 last year, they had a video chat over mobile application Facetime when Kishenraj offered to the woman Singapore Dollar 200 for video sex. He sent a screenshot of his online banking account details to prove that he would transfer the money to her account. Kishenraj ended the video chat after a few minutes but did not transfer the money. The victim contacted him via mobile chat platform WhatsApp and demanded to transfer the money. Kishenraj refused and threatened her with text messages claiming that he had recorded the video. The victim approached police on February 2. Kishenraj`s lawyer SS Dhillon said: "He knew very well that what he uttered to her could never be carried out. No recording was discovered on his mobile phone. It is an impossibility."