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.

Muhyiddin said the people should not make hasty decisions on the matter.

NONE"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 Sekolah Kebangsaan Subang Bestari today.

On Thursday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had decided to allow the weekly newspaper, The Herald, 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.

'Controversy will be resolved'

Muhyiddin 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 besides 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.

The Herald, which is printed in four languages, has been using the word 'Allah' as a translation for 'God' in its Malay-language section, but the government argued 'Allah' should be used only by Muslims.

The term 'Allah' is widely used among indigenous Christian tribes in Sabah and Sarawak, most of whom speak Bahasa Malaysia.

- Bernama