Malaysia backpedals on Allah ban for Christian paper, renews its permit

The Jakarta Post

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): A Roman Catholic newspaper said Monday the government has reversed its decision to ban the publication over its use of the word "Allah," easing a row that strained racial harmony in the multiethnic country.

In a surprising about-turn over the weekend, the government renewed The Herald weekly's 2008 permit without any conditions, said its editor Rev. Lawrence Andrew.

"There are no conditions, there was no mention of the Allah ban," he told The Associated Press.

Internal security officials declined to comment when contacted.

The ministry had repeatedly warned The Herald that its printing permit may be revoked if it continued to use "Allah" as a synonym for God in its Malay-language section. After The Herald refused, it was told in early December that its Malay-language section would be banned from January.

All publications in Malaysia require a government permit, which is renewed annually.

The government said "Allah" refers to the Muslim God and can only be used by Muslims.

Allah, an Arabic word, means God in Bahasa Melayu also, the language of Malays who are Muslims and form 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people. Officials feared that using the word Allah in Christian literature would confuse the Malays and draw them to Christianity.

Malaysian Christians have argued that Allah is an Arabic word that was used by Christians before Islam. Even in Malaysia, Malay-speaking Christians have used the word Allah for generations.

"You can't deny a people the use of its language," said Andrew, adding that the community is grateful the ban was not imposed. "It was certainly a good thing for the country as a whole that we can accept one another. We need to be moderate and have tolerance."

The Herald, which has a circulation of 12,000 copies, publishes reports in four languages - English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil - for the country's 900,000 Catholics.

The Herald will, however, pursue its court action to get a legal endorsement for what it says is its Constitutional right to use "Allah," Andrew said.

A church in Sabah state in eastern Malaysia has also sued the government for preventing it from using the word "Allah" in its Malay-language literature. The church has not received any notification that they can use the literature and they say the ban violates the freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution.

Religion issues are extremely sensitive in Malaysia, where minorities often complain that their rights are trampled upon by overzealous Muslim bureaucrats with Islamic leanings. They accuse the government of not doing enough to prevent this, and of tacitly taking part in the alleged discrimination.

The minorities are mostly ethnic Chinese, who follow Christianity and Buddhism and account for 25 percent of the population, followed by ethnic Indians who are mostly Hindus and are 10 percent.