ABSTRACT
The judicial review saw the High Court overturn the ban on the use of the term Allah by non-Muslims on the grounds that the term's usage in Malay-language Christian publications was within the constitutional provision of religious freedom. Muslim–Christian relations have faced pressure due to interreligious differences and tension that began with the controversies over religious conversion and escalated with the Allah controversy and concomitant arson attacks on several churches in early January 2010. Some have suggested that the arrival of Christianity in Malaysia can be traced as far back as the seventh century when the religion was brought to the region by Persian and Turkish traders. The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) was founded in 1985 as a broad-based ecumenical umbrella that represents the diverse Christian denominations in Malaysia in their dealings with the government. The CFM believed that the proposals were a short-term prescription which did not address the root cause of the impoundment of the Malay Bibles.
