“As the head of Islam in Johor, I urge the federal government to appeal the ruling,” he said in a statement today.

Sultan Ibrahim added that he would order the Johor Islamic Council to take any necessary steps to support the appeal.

Citing a Johor fatwa that prohibits non-Muslims from using the word “Allah”, he said the fatwa states that the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims which are not in line with its true meaning as per Islamic teachings, was not allowed.

He added that state enactments also prohibited the use of “Allah” by non-Muslims except in ways allowed for by the law.

The government has already filed its appeal against last week’s High Court ruling that a Dec 5, 1986, home ministry directive to prohibit the use of the words “Allah”, “Baitullah”, “Solat” and “Kaabah” by non-Muslims was illegal and unconstitutional.

The ruling by Judge Nor Bee Ariffin stated that the directive was wrongly issued as it went beyond the aim of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.

“The law is only to check on undesirable publications. It is not a general law to check on public order, public health and morality,” she said, adding that the home ministry had acted unreasonably, illegally and irrationally.

Nor Bee, who is now a Court of Appeal judge, said that as such, the directive to prevent non-Muslims from using the four words was set aside.