Kuala Lumpur, May 6 (IANS) A court here has permitted a publisher to challenge the Malaysian government’s ban on the use of the word Allah in his Catholic weekly. High Court judge Lau Bee Lan Monday dismissed the objection by the government and ruled that it was without merit.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Murphy Pakiam had applied to declare that the Herald was entitled to use the word and that its use was not exclusive to Islam, The Star newspaper said Tuesday.

Murphy, 70, had named the internal security minister and the government as respondents in the application filed March 19.

Counsel for the applicant S. Selvarajah said the granting of the leave showed that the case was not “frivolous or vexatious”.

“The court felt that the application couldn’t be dismissed without further argument on merits of the case. It wants us to go forward to urge the court to quash the minister’s decision,” he added.