Maltese is spoken by Christians and uses the word Allah for God (not sure of the spelling--but Maltese is descended from the Arabic spoken on the island during the Middle Ages).
So now the Muslims are laying claim to languages, as well? Allah is simply a word for God in various Arabic and Arabic-related languages, and is still used by Arab language Christians (such as the Syrian Antiochene Church) and in Scriptural translation.
Mohammed picked it simply because it meant God; naturally, then, he “rebranded” it, as Islam does with everything, and now Muslims assert that it refers only to their twisted concept of God.
I hope they don’t get away with this one.
I know there are plenty of people out there that believe Allah refers to some Arabic moon god. In truth, a religious background with such a moon god may well have influenced Mohammed’s description of Allah. He may even have chosen the name because he thought it might help him win over moon-god worshippers; there is a linguistic similarity. But the term has been used in Middle-Eastern Orthodox and Catholic communities for centuries. They distinguish God from the Muslim invention by calling him Allah al-Ab.
Allah comes from “Al ilah,” meaning “the god.” It has been used to refer to pagan gods, but to say it refers to any given pagan god is as inaccurate as to say that the English use of “God” refers to Odin, or Zeus, not to the Hebrew God.
Denying the Malaysians use of the word Allah, therefore, is akin to denying English Christians the use of the word, “God.”