The Malaysian government has put a stop to a Catholic newspaper over the use of the word “Allah” in its Malay-language edition, the paper’s editor reported Thursday.
Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of The Herald weekly newspaper, said the government ordered the Malay edition to stop running until courts resolve a ban on the paper’s use of “Allah” to refer to God, according to the news site Malaysiakini.com.
“The prohibition amounts to persecution,” Andrew told The Associated Press. “It curtails our freedom of expression and diminishes our rights as citizens…. We are perplexed and we do not think that the prohibition is on solid legal ground.”
Malaysia has a Muslim-majority. It often, with Turkey, is near the top of the lists of Muslim-dominated countries which claim to have a tolerance of non-Islam religions. This action doesn't seem to be an expression of that.
"Allah" is not a name but the generic word for God which is an Arabic word which predates the prophet Mohammad. Its use by a Catholic newspaper is not blasphemous.
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