Malaysia's High Court verdict last week allowing the Catholic Church's weekly newspaper, The Herald, to use the word 'Allah' has provoked strong reactions in a country where politics is closely entwined with race and religion. They fall largely into three categories:
A GROUP on a social networking site - formed to campaign against the High Court ruling allowing a Catholic publication to use the word 'Allah' to denote God - has been inundated with members, reflecting the anger among many Muslims with the decision.
Now 66,000 strong, nearly double the number on Sunday when figures were first released, the group wants to ban non-Muslims from using the word.
The members feel that Christians are encroaching on Islam's turf in Malaysia with the court's ruling, as 'Allah' has been exclusively used by Muslims in Peninsular Malaysia all along.
Members of the Facebook group - Protesting the use of the name Allah by non-Muslims -
include many lecturers from various universities in Malaysia and politicians such as Deputy Trade Minister Mukhriz Mahathir.
There is another newly formed group in cyberspace - Bloggers Against Blasphemies - on a similar campaign.
Reaction has been vitriolic in some instances.
Many of those angered by the court decision have said it could lead to potential confusion for younger Muslims and would encourage conversions.
One blogger described it as an 'insult'.
'The ordinary Malays, the pasar malam crowd, the kampung mindset are not going to tolerate this insult.
'And the insult, growing in volume and intensity each day, will translate into civil unrest. So at what cost is the ruling obtained?' asked popular blogger and former assemblyman Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz, who said the government must win its appeal against the court ruling.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz was quoted by the Malaysian Insider website as saying the uproar over the issue was similar to that over cow-head protest last year.
In August last year, Muslim protesters stomped on a cow's head to protest against plans to build a Hindu temple in their neighbourhood in Shah Alam.
'I see the usage of the word 'Allah' and the cow-head incident as the same. If you can take action against the cow-head protesters, why not over the usage of 'Allah' among non-Muslims? We have to be fair in the matter,' he said.
Mr Nazri also reportedly questioned the purpose of the Catholic church's insistence on using the word, saying it was 'irresponsible' and 'looking for trouble'.
'If you do want to use the word God in Bahasa Malaysia, God is Tuhan. I don't understand why you want to use Allah,' he said.
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