A Malaysian court has ruled that non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah to refer to God.  The ruling overturned a 2009 lower court verdict.

The appeal court held that allowing non-Muslims to use the word would “cause confusion in the community.”

Christians had argued that they have used the word in Malay for decades and that the ruling violates their rights. The 2009 ruling sparked religious tensions which led to churches and mosques being attacked.

It came after the government said that a Catholic newspaper, The Herald, could not use the word in its Malay-language edition to describe the Christian God.

The newspaper sued, and a court ruled in their favour in December 2009. The government then launched an appeal.

Chief Judge, MohamedApandi Ali,  while ruling on the case today averred that: “The usage of the word Allah is not an integral part of the faith in Christianity.”

“The usage of the word will cause confusion in the community,” Ali added.

The Herald editor, Reverend Lawrence Andrew, said he was “disappointed and dismayed,” and would appeal against the decision.

“It is a retrograde step in the development of law in relation to the fundamental liberty of religious minorities,” he said.

The newspaper’s supporters have argued that Malay-language Bibles have used Allah to refer to the Christian God since before Malaysia was formed as a federal state in 1963.