Faith Digest: Malaysia: ‘Allah’ only for Muslims

Malaysian court says only Muslims can call God ‘Allah.’ A court in Muslim-majority Malaysia unanimously ruled only Muslims are permitted to use the Arabic word “Allah” to describe God, overturning a lower court’s 2009 decision that allowed others to use the word. Chief Judge Mohamed Apandi Ali said use of the term by non-Muslims “will cause unnecessary confusion within the Islamic community and is surely not conducive to the peaceful and harmonious tempo of life in the country.” The ruling was aimed primarily at a Catholic newspaper, The Herald, which had been printing the word in its Malay-language stories to describe the Christian God, until the government deemed it illegal in 2008. When The Herald sued, a lower court ruled in favor of free speech in 2009 and allowed the paper to use the word. That decision resulted in clashes between the two religions, including arson attacks against dozens of churches and a few mosques. Editor Lawrence Andrew said he would appeal to Malaysia’s highest court. Christians in Malaysia had used the word “Allah” for decades in churches and Malay-language Bibles, but the government decided a judicial ruling was needed to determine if the terminology should be legal.

Nazi SS captain denied church funeral in Rome. Catholic churches in Rome joined government officials in three countries to deny a public funeral for Erich Priebke, the unrepentant Nazi war criminal who died at age 100 in Rome Oct. 11. Erich Priebke (Wikipedia image)Priebke, an SS captain accused of war crimes for his role in the execution of 335 men in 1944 near the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome, was refused burial space in Rome, his adopted country of Argentina, and his hometown of Hennigsdorf in Germany. Cardinal Agostino Vallini, Pope Francis’ cardinal vicar of Rome, prohibited any church in Rome from hosting Priebke’s funeral. Paolo Giachini, Priebke’s lawyer, lobbied to hold a private funeral in some Rome churches but reportedly was rebuffed. Newspapers reported the funeral probably would be held in an apartment Giachini owns behind the Vatican, where Priebke lived under house arrest the last 15 years. It remained unclear where he will be buried, but Italian television reported a Sicilian town near the city of Messina would allow Priebke to be buried in its municipal cemetery.