DHAKA: Malaysia should reverse a ban on a Christian newspaper using the word ‘Allah’ to refer to God, a UN official said on Monday about a decision that fanned religious tension in the mainly Muslim country.

Malaysia’s second highest court ruled in October that the Catholic newspaper, the Herald, could not use the word ‘Allah’ to refer to God, in a landmark decision on an issue that has fanned religious tension in the majority Muslim country.

‘Freedom of religion or belief is a right of human beings, not a right of the state,’ the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, said in statement, according to The Straits Times.

‘It cannot be the business of the state to shape or reshape religious traditions, nor can the state claim any binding authority in the interpretation of religious sources or in the definition of the tenets of faith,’ he said.

BDST: 1818 HRS, NOV 25, 2013