COMMENT In deference to the maxim that discretion is the better part of valour, the titular head of the Catholic Church in the archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur should not appeal the appellate court's decision to restrict the use of the term ‘Allah' to Muslims.

To appeal would likely invite another panel (coram) of Muslim judges, this time from the Federal Court, to engage in the legal and literary gymnastics that masqueraded as reasoned judgment of the three Court of Appeal judges who handed down their rulings yesterday.

The Archbishop of KL, the respondent in this case, might want to spare a hypothetical panel of the apex court the indignity of another display of contorted semantics.

In doing so, he would be deferring to another bit of wisdom, this time biblical rather than secular, which is the need for rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's.

The Malaysian Caesar, which is Umno, wants to control the Muslim narrative. Christians are helpless to prevent this. Only Malaysia's Muslims can do anything about it...