Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010956171500.htm

International

Conditional lifting of ban on Malay newspaper

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will lift a ban on the Malay edition of a Catholic newspaper if it agrees to stop using the word “Allah,” an official said on Thursday, but the editor of the paper rejected the precondition.

The Home Ministry had ordered the Herald newspaper last week to stop printing its Malay edition for violating a 2007 ban on the use of the word “Allah,” except to refer to the Muslim God. The dispute has become a touchstone for religious tensions in this multiethnic country.

The government agreed Thursday to lift the ban. “If they stop printing the word ‘Allah,’ they can publish anytime,” said Che Din Yusoh, a senior official with the ministry’s publications control unit, told The Associated Press.

But the editor of the Herald, the country’s main Roman Catholic newspaper, said he will continue to use “Allah,” raising the possibility of a fresh confrontation.

The Herald has challenged the ban saying the translation has been used for centuries.

— AP