Malaysia's top court on Monday rejected the Roman Catholic Church's appeal for the right to use the word "Allah" to refer to the Christian God in its newspaper.
The high-stakes case, which dates back seven years, has provoked strong feelings in the Muslim-majority country at a time that advocates of conservative Islam have been gaining clout.
The Catholic Church first brought a case in 2008 to try to overturn a ruling by Malaysia's then-home minister, Syed Hamid Albar, which prohibited the Herald newspaper from using the word "Allah," to refer to the Christian God, arguing it should be used solely by Muslims.
The minority Christian population had hoped that a win in the case would strengthen religious tolerance in a nation where Islam is the official religion. An initial ruling in favor of the church in 2009 sparked mob vandalism and arson at both Christian and Muslim places of worship. [The Wall Street Journal] Read more
