Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church have urged a court in Malaysia to let Christians use "Allah" as a translation for God and overturn a government ban that has become a symbol of religious grievances in the Muslim-majority nation, the Associated Press is reporting.

The High Court began hearing legal arguments Monday in the dispute, which began in late 2007 after the government blocked non-Muslims from translating God as "Allah" in their literature on the grounds that it would confuse Muslims.

Authorities have insisted that the name should be used exclusively by Muslims. The ban mainly affects the Malay-language edition of the Catholic Church's main publication in Malaysia, The Herald, which is read mostly by indigenous tribes who converted to Christianity decades ago.

"Our position has been made clear to the court," The Herald's editor, the Rev. Lawrence Andrew, told the AP. "The main thing is we've been using this word ... for a long time, for centuries."

But in recent years, authorities have seized some Malay-language Bibles that used "Allah."
We are reminded of reports a couple of years ago that a Catholic bishop in the Netherlands wanted Dutch Catholics to call God “Allah.”

Tiny Muskens, then the bishop of Breda, told a Dutch television station that using the name in church, as is common in many Muslim countries, would eventually promote rapprochement between Islam and Christianity.

"Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa [Almighty God] for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years,” he said. “In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can't we start doing that together?"