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BY V. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR September 10, 2013 Latest Update: September 10, 2013 08:12 pm

Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew giving a press statement at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya. The court will deliver a decision on the Allah issue next month. The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, September 10, 2013.The Home Minister did not have sufficient material before him when he made the decision to ban the word Allah in the Herald, the Court of Appeal heard today.

"He did not have enough evidence to ban the word on grounds of national interest and public order," said counsel Porres Royen who represented the Catholic Church.

Royen said the minister also imposed an unreasonable restriction on the publication as the word was intended only for Christians.

"This ban was a gross violation of a constitutional right, " he said in defending the 2009 High Court ruling in favour of the church.

On December 31, 2009, the High Court allowed the church's judicial review application and lifted the home minister's ban on the use of the word in the Herald.

Among other things, judge Lau Bee Lan had said then that the church had a constitutional right to use the word Allah in its newspaper on grounds that religions other than Islam can be practised in peace and harmony.

Royen, in his submission today said the government could not use events after the High Court ruling to reverse the court order.

Earlier, the government lawyer Suzana Atan, told the court that after the High Court ruling, there were several arson attempts on churches and an incident in which vandals tossed a pigs head into a mosque.

Royen told the three-man bench that the government relied on public opinion that a "certain section of the society" was sensitive to the use of the word but pointed out that public opinion was irrelevent as legal and constitutional issues were now before the court.

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