COMMENT | Seriously, we should give 'Allah' row a rest

COMMENT | Honestly, I would have chosen to conveniently forget and bury this ‘Allah’ issue. Unfortunately, it resurfaced now and again, and it did so with the High Court ruling yesterday.

Perhaps it's not my intention to forget it totally, but I am placing it as a low priority in my list of public concerns, even though I am a Christian, a Catholic to be precise.

It so happened that the Catholic Church had been heavily involved in court battles over the Allah issue for the past many years. Like it or not, I have also been caught in it because it concerns my faith.

After the Catholic Church lost its final appeal on its use of the word ‘Allah’ in the Malay language section of its newspaper, The Herald, in 2015, I had hoped that would close the Allah chapter.

The Federal Court decision then brought an end to a protracted legal battle over constitutional rights.

I have been following the Allah controversy closely and find it very demoralising and depressing. It is particularly so because I think it is even petty as we have been quarrelling over the use of a mere word. Not for one or two weeks but for years.

The more sober among us will realise that there can never be a winner in an argument about God or religion. Who are we, mere mortals, to decide who is right or wrong on matters of the divine?

After the 2015 ruling, things were quiet for more than two years till Oct 19, 2017, when the Jill Ireland case came up in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur. Then too, we heard the same old arguments being played up again by her lawyers.

I must concede that after the 2015 decision against The Herald, I did not think that Jill Ireland’s case would make much headway.

So, I was...