DEPUTY PM IS CONFIDENT ISSUE ON 'ALLAH' CAN BE RESOLVED

PETALING JAYA (Malaysia), Jan 4 (Bernama) -- Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin
Yassin has advised the people to be calm and have faith in the measures taken by
the government to tackle the issue concerning the Kuala Lumpur High Court's
decision to allow the weekly newspaper of the Catholic church, Herald, to use
the word 'Allah' in its publication.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the people should not make hasty decisions on
the matter.

"I think we should have faith in the government leadership to tackle the
problem. We don't want a situation where the court decision can cause anger and
tension between the various races in the country," he told reporters after
visiting a smart school near here Monday.

On Thursday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had decided to allow the weekly
newspaper, Herald-The Catholic Weekly, to use the word "Allah" in its
publication.

On Feb 16, the Chief Bishop of the Kuala Lumpur Roman Catholic, Murphy
Pakiam, as the publisher of the newspaper, filed a petition for a judicial
review to seek a declaration that the Home Minister's decision for a
prohibition on the use of the word "Allah" in the newspaper was illegal and that
the word "Allah" was not exclusive to Islam.

Muhyiddin, who is also Malaysia's Education Minister, said the government
would continue to hold dialogues and discussions with religious bodies to
resolve the problem.

"We always have dialogues which clearly aim to create cordial relations
between several religious groups which represent several organisations.

"I'm confident we can resolve (the matter) and we hold discussions with
religious groups so that they will understand beside referring to the decision
of the court based on the Constitution. We should understand from the aspects of
history, Islamic religion and so on," he added.
-- BERNAMA