The government's decision yesterday to withdraw its appeal against a landmark ruling which allowed Jill Ireland - a non-Muslim Sarawakian - to use the word "Allah", has raised questions on its legal implications.

One of those questions is whether the High Court decision that favoured the Melanau Christian, clashes with a previous Court of Appeal ruling which prevented Catholic weekly publication, The Herald from using the word "Allah".

Weighing in on this, former Malaysian Bar president Salim Bashir told Malaysiakini that while these two rulings appear to overlap, there are slight differences...