The Correct Decision

As widely expected, the Malaysian Court of Appeal upheld the decision to ban the word "Allah" from the Bahasa Malaysia section of Catholic weekly Herald. This decision surprised no one as even Malaysian Christians, who make up about 9% of the population, did not believe they had a chance.

Now the Malaysian courts has a reputation of being corrupt and a long history of making bad decisions. This is not one of them.

Frankly, I cannot understand why Christians in Malaysia want to use "Allah" as the name of their god. The Christian God has a name. The authors of the New Testament took for granted the existence of the God of the Old Testament. They believed in Yahweh, "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," whom the Jews worshipped as the one true God.

Now Malaysian Christians want to use "Allah" as the name of their God? Sorry but that makes no sense. As amazing as it seems, for once, the Malaysian Court of Appeal made the correct decision here.