Authorities in Malaysia have threatened not to renew the publishing license of a Catholic weekly newspaper if it continues to use the word "Allah" in its Malay language section, Catholic and government officials said.

The Herald, the organ of Malaysia's Catholic Church, has translated the word God as "Allah" but it is erroneous because Allah refers to the Muslim god, said Che Din Yusoff, a senior official at the Internal Security Ministry's publications control department, in remarks monitored by BosNewsLife. Christians cannot use the word Allah. It is only applicable to Muslims. Allah is only for the Muslim god. This is a design to confuse the Muslim people, Che Din added.

However church sources say the Malay-language Bible uses Allah for God. We follow the Bible. The Malay-language Bible uses Allah for God and Tuhan for Lord. In our prayers and in
church during Malay mass, we use the word Allah, Reverend Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, told reporters.

Yet, Che Din said there are four Malay words that must not be used by other religions, he said: Allah for God, "solat" for prayers, "kaabah" for the place of Muslim worship in Mecca and "baitula" the house of Allah. The weekly should instead, use the word "Tuhan" which is the general term for God, he reportedly said.

The Herald's permit will only be renewed in two weeks if they stop using Allah in their publication.

A church and Christian newspaper in Malaysia are suing the government after it decreed that the word "Allah" can only be used by Muslims.

In the Malay language "Allah" is used to mean any god, and Christians say they have used the term for centuries.

A spokesman for the Herald, the newspaper of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, said a legal suit was filed after they received repeated official warnings that the newspaper could have its licence revoked if it continued to use the word.

We are of the view that we have the right to use the word 'Allah', said editor Rev Lawrence Andrew.

The Sabah Evangelical Church of Borneo has also taken legal action after a government ministry moved to ban the import of religious children's books containing the word.

In a statement given to Reuters news agency, the church said the translation of the bible in which the word Allah appears has been used by Christians since the earliest days of the church.

There has been no official government comment but parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the decision to ban the word for non-Muslims on security grounds was "unlawful": The term 'Allah' was used to refer to God by Arabic-speaking Christians before Arabic-speaking Muslims existed.

The Malaysian government has reversed a decision to ban a Christian newspaper using the word 'Allah' to refer to God.

The government had threatened to refuse to give the Weekly Herald a publishing permit if it continued to use the word.

Now the government has back-tracked. In a fax to the Herald's editor, the government says it will get its 2008 permit, with no conditions attached.

Father Andrew Lawrence told the BBC he was delighted, saying prayers had been answered.

He blamed politics and a general election expected here in 2008 year for what he said were the actions of a few over-zealous ministers in the Muslim-dominated Malay government.

The Malaysian government has reiterated that non-Muslims cannot use the word ''Allah,'' sparking concern Friday among Christians who use it to refer to God in their Malay-language Bible and other publications.

Abdullah Zin, the de facto minister for Islamic affairs, told reporters that the Cabinet is of the view that ''Allah'' refers to the Muslim God and can only be used by Muslims.

The use of the word 'Allah' by non-Muslims may arouse sensitivity and create confusion among Muslims in the country, Abdullah said.

His statement is the latest twist in a long-drawn controversy involving The Herald, a weekly organ of Malaysia's Catholic Church. It was told by the Internal Security Ministry last month that its Malay-language section would be banned unless it stops using ''Allah'' as a synonym for God.

But the paper was surprised when the ministry made an apparent about-turn last weekend by renewing its annual permit - a government requirement for all publications in Malaysia - without imposing any conditions. The paper assumed it was a tacit approval for the use of ''Allah.''

Abdullah's comments Thursday, however, threw the issue into fresh confusion, and will likely renew complaints by ethnic minorities that their rights are increasingly undermined because of government efforts to bolster the status of Islam, Malaysia's official religion.

The Herald's editor, Rev. Lawrence Andrew, said its latest issue on Wednesday still uses ''Allah,'' but he could not say whether upcoming editions would omit the word.

He declined to comment further, noting the paper has initiated court action to get a legal endorsement for what it says is its Constitutional right to use ''Allah.''

Adding to the furor over whether non-Muslims have the right to use the word “Allah” in their publications and religious practice, it is reported that officials confiscated English-language Christian children’s books because they contained images of prophets.

The government reportedly said Internal Security Ministry officials confiscated the books because their illustrations of prophets offended the sensitivities of Muslims. Islam, which shares some prophets in common with Christianity, prohibits the portrayal of prophets.

Enforcement officials of the Publications and Al-Quran Texts Control Department under the Internal Security Ministry reportedly confiscated the books from three bookstores in Johor Bahru, Senawang and Ipoh in mid-December.

The books have been sent to the department’s headquarters in Putrajaya for investigation. Managers of the MPH bookstores reportedly said they will wait for the Internal Security Ministry’s decision on the books.

In a statement released on January 17 , the Rev. Dr. Hermen Shastri, general-secretary of the Council of Churches Malaysia questioned how the books could be offensive to Muslims when they were not meant for them. In the strongly worded statement about the seizures, Shastri said government officials have no right and have overstepped their bounds by confiscating Christian literature.

He urged the prime minister and his Cabinet to take immediate action to put a stop to such seizures and to amend administrative rules and regulations especially in the Internal Security Ministry that give a free hand to enforcement officials to act at their whim and fancies.

At the same time, the debate over whether non-Muslims can use the word “Allah” in publications and religious practice was stoked when the Internal Security Ministry told the Sun on January 16 that it had confiscated a total of 163 publications comprising 18 titles from bookshops nationwide.

A ministry official told the daily that the seizures were made because the word “Allah” was used in the books. But Deputy Internal Ministry Minister Johari Baharum reportedly said that the ministry did not target Christian books.

The lawsuit by the archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur against the government of Malaysia has been adjourned until April 29. The archdiocese is claiming the right to use the word "Allah" in its Catholic weekly, the Herald.

The standoff over the use of the word "Allah" is just one more chapter in the difficulties facing the majority Muslim country, where a secular constitution is accompanied by Islamic courts charged with applying sharia.

On December 10, the domestic security ministry had prohibited the Malay-language section of the Herald from using the word "Allah" to designate the Christian God, claiming it could be used in this way only by Muslims. Fr Andrew Lawrence, the director of the newspaper, was forced to accept the restriction, but the archdiocese decided to sue the government.

The archbishop of the capital, Murphy Pakiam, maintains that the domestic security minister and the federal government are making a mistake: I am advised by my solicitors that I have a legal right to use the word 'Allah' in the Herald, and this legal right stems from the right to freedom of speech and expression as enshrined in Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.

Archbishop Pakiam further reports that he has been under constant pressure from the government to conform to the "directives". At the same time, numerous threats have been issued, creating a climate of "apprehension".

The bishop concludes by describing as unreasonable and irrational" the justification of the ministry, according to which the use of the word "Allah" is a security issue which is purportedly causing much confusion and which threatens and endangers peace, public order and security". Over thirteen years of publication, he adds, no article in the Herald has ever caused any incidents.

A Roman Catholic newspaper cleared its first legal hurdle in its fight against a Malaysian government ban on Christians using the word "Allah" as a synonym for "God."

High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan ruled that prosecutors' objection to a lawsuit by The Herald weekly was without merit. The judge said she will allow the paper to contest the government ban in court.

The government says the word "Allah" refers only to the Muslim God and its use by Christians might confuse Muslims. It has threatened to revoke the paper's publishing license if it defies the order.

The Herald also wants a court declaration that "Allah" is not for exclusive use by Muslims. The court agreed that the church's application is not frivolous nor vexatious nor an abuse of process. It deserves to be heard, said Derek Fernandez, a lawyer for the newspaper.

The court will set a trial date later, Fernandez told reporters.

The Herald  insists that "Allah" is an Arabic word that predates Islam and has been used for centuries to mean "God" in Malay.

In a separate case in Malaysia, the Sabah Evangelical Church of Borneo has also filed a lawsuit in an effort to be allowed to use "Allah" after officials last year banned the import of books containing the word. Hearings in that case were still in the preliminary stages.

A Malaysian court hearing the appeal by an evangelical church to use the word "Allah" in its Sunday School materials has been adjourned to next month.

The Evangelical Church of Borneo, otherwise known as SIB (Sidang Injil Borneo), and its president Pastor Jerry Dusing filed the appeal at the High Court against the Internal Security Ministry and the Malaysian Government.

The hearing will resume on November 12.

On August 15 last year, SIB was preparing to bring in three cartons containing six different publications from Indonesia to be used as Sunday School materials when they were withheld by a customs officer and later handed over to the Internal Security Ministry (ISM.

Nearly a month later, Dusing received a letter from the ISM stating that the import of the publications had been denied, that Christian publications containing the word “Allah” cannot be distributed in Malaysia. The letter also stated that the publications can raise confusion and controversy in Malaysian society.

In response the church sent an appeal letter dated September 24 to the minister, stating that the previous prime minister had allowed the use of the word “Allah” in their publications.

A Malaysian Christian is suing the government for allegedly violating her religious rights after airport officials seized Christian educational CDs that she brought from Indonesia, the woman's lawyer said.

Customs authorities in this Muslim-majority country confiscated eight CDs from Jill Ireland when she flew back to Kuala Lumpur in May after a trip to Jakarta, her lawyer, Annou Xavier, said.

The Home Ministry informed her in a letter that the CDs were seized mainly because their cover titles contained the word "Allah," which is prohibited in non-Muslim religious material, Xavier said.

Ireland wants the Kuala Lumpur High Court to issue a declaration allowing her to transport any religious material for her own personal use, Xavier said.

The court on Thursday scheduled Jan. 30 for a preliminary hearing.

Government lawyer Suzana Atan declined to comment on details of the case, but noted that authorities have barred the use of the word "Allah" except for Muslim publications.

A Catholic newspaper in Malaysia is facing a ban for using the word "Allah" to describe the Christian god.

Unless the government changes its mind, the Herald Catholic Weekly has only two weeks left to run before its licence expires at the end of the year. The deputy home minister Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said: Until December 31 we are not going to announce anything. There is plenty of time till then. Let them wait.

The Catholic Herald's 'Allah' is seen as a threat to national security, said Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald: We are now a scapegoat, a means for the Malay Muslims to rally together.

In the Malay language the only word for "God" is "Allah" and the newspaper claims it is impossible to avoid.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs has ordered the Catholic weekly Herald to cease publishing its Malay-language section pending the outcome of a court case over the newspaper’s right to use the Arabic word 'Allah' for God.

The government also included two other conditions: The newspaper can be sold only in churches, and it must be printed clearly on the cover that it is meant for Christians only.

The three conditions were included in the renewal notice of the weekly’s annual printing license issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. A hearing in the court case is scheduled for Feb. 27.

The publisher of the Herald has rejected the conditions imposed on the newspaper and submitted a letter of appeal to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald hopes to receive a revocation of the restriction from the ministry, before the first edition of the weekly for 2009 goes to print. Otherwise, the weekly will have to be scaled down to 24 pages, down by a quarter of its usual size.

Fr. Andrew reportedly said the ban was unacceptable and urged the government to let the court decide and not jump the gun. In a report by The Associated Press (AP) he described the prohibition as amounting to persecution: It curtails our freedom of expression and diminishes our rights as citizens.

Nine days after imposing a ban on the Malay-language section of the Herald, a Catholic newspaper, Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs has lifted the ban – but stipulated that the publisher must not use the word “Allah” for God in its Malay section until the matter is settled in court.

Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, told Compass that the letter made clear that the conditions set out by the government in its earlier  letter still stand. The publisher must print the word terhad (restricted or limited in Malay) on the cover page of the newspaper to indicate that the weekly can only be sold in churches and is meant for Christians only. Fr. Andrew told Compass the publisher will comply with this condition, which he said was not an unreasonable request.

In addition, the ministry has continued to prohibit the publisher from using the word “Allah” as the Malay translation for God. The ministry maintained that the prohibition must remain in place until the dispute over the publisher’s right to use the word is settled in court.

The Malaysian government has softened an earlier ban on the use of the word 'Allah' by Christian publications to refer to God and is allowing them to use it as long as they specify the material is not for Muslims, a church official said.

The government had earlier argued that the use of Allah in Christian texts might confuse Muslims, who might think Allah refers to their God.

The revised order was issued Feb. 16 by Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, said the Rev. Lawrence Andrew, the editor of the Herald, the Roman Catholic Church's main newspaper in Malaysia. He said the publication has already started printing For Christianity on its cover.

The Herald publishes weekly in English, Mandarin, Tamil and Malay with an estimated readership of 50,000. The ban on 'Allah' concerns mainly the Malay edition, which is read mostly by indigenous Christian tribes in the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak. The other three editions usually do not use the word 'Allah'.

The Malaysian government will issue a new decree restoring a ban on Christian publications using the word 'Allah' to refer to God, officials said today.

Home Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar said a February 16 decree that let Christian publications use the word as long as they specified the material was not for Muslims was a mistake.

The about-turn came after Islamic groups slammed the government and warned that even conditional use of the word by Christians would anger Muslims in the largely Islamic country.

A senior ministry official confirmed Syed Hamid's comments, saying there were interpretation mistakes in the February 16 decree that led to the confusion.

'Allah' cannot be used for other religions except Islam because it might confuse Muslims. This is the ministry's stand and it hasn't changed, the official, who declined to be named citing protocol, said.

Malaysia warned a leading lawyers association not to use its website to discuss whether non-Muslims can use the word "Allah" for God, saying it would incur the wrath of the country's majority Muslims.

The authorities banned the Catholic Herald newspaper's use of Allah to denote God last year. The Herald is now suing the government to overturn the ruling.

The Malaysian Bar Council, which represents 12,000 lawyers, had asked its members and visitors to the website to vote in a poll on whether any race had an exclusive right over the word Allah and if non-Muslim religious publications should be allowed to use the word to refer to God.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Minister in charge of Islamic affairs, was quoted as saying: This is the final warning for the Bar Council ... The cabinet and parliament too had ruled that the issue should not be put to discussion. After this I hope no individual or organisation will raise the issue.

The Catholic Church in Malaysia has lost its latest bid to use 'Allah' as a translation for 'God' in its newspaper pending a further court case now set for 7th July 2009.

High Court judge Lau Bee Lan made the decision after hearing submissions from two counsels for the applicant, Archbishop Datuk Murphy Nicholas Xavier Pakiam, and two counsels for the respondent, the Home Ministry, according to Bernama, Malaysian National News Agency.

A spokesmand for the Home Ministry told reporters outside the chambers that if the High Court allowed the church to use ‘Allah' in a non-Muslim context, it would be helping the church to commit an offense under state laws. This means that the church's weekly news publication, The Herald, cannot use the word until the court decides.

The Rev Father Lawrence Andrew, who edits the Catholic weekly, was disappointed with the outcome: We had asked them to lift the ban so that we can use the word until the court decides. We are innocent until proven guilty, so why shouldn't we use it, Father Andrew told AFP:The court is going to hear our case on July 7 so that's an opening in the dark tunnel.

Under the Control and Restriction of the Propagation of non-Islamic Religious Enactment passed into law by 10 states in 1988, it is an offence for non-Muslims to use the word ‘Allah' to refer to any God other than the Muslim God.

Malaysian authorities have confiscated more than 15,000 Bibles in recent months because they referred to God as Allah, a translation that has been banned in this Muslim-majority country, Christian church officials have said.

The Rev. Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, said authorities seized a consignment of 10,000 copies sent from Jakarta to Kuching in Sarawak state on Sept. 11 because the Indonesian-language Bibles contained the word Allah.

Indonesian language is similar to Malaysian language, both of which use Allah as translation for God in both Islamic and Christian traditions.

Another 5,100 Bibles, also imported from Indonesia, were seized in March, said an official from the Bible Society of Malaysia, who asked not to be named for fear of angering the government.

The Roman Catholic Church is challenging the Allah ban in court, saying it is unconstitutional and discriminates against those worshipping in Malay language. The case has been stuck in preliminary hearings for almost two years.

A court in Malaysia has ruled that Christians have a constitutional right to use the word Allah to refer to God.

The High Court said a government ban on non-Muslims using the word was unconstitutional.

The court was ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Herald, a publication of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, in 2007. The Herald filed for a judicial review after it was ordered in 2007 to stop referring to Allah in its publication. The publication said it had been been using the word for decades, and had a constitutional right to do so.

The authorities had insisted that Allah in the Malay language refers only to the God in Islam, which could only be used by Muslims.

The BBC's Jennifer Pak in Kuala Lumpur said some Muslim groups suspect the Catholic Church is seeking to encourage Muslims to convert to Christianity - a move which is illegal in Malaysia.

The issue had become a symbol of a growing number of religious grievances among minority groups, in a political environment often divided along racial and religious lines, our correspondent adds.

Update: Appealing to Allah

4th January 2010. Based on article from thescotsman.scotsman.com

Malaysia's government is to challenge a court ruling that Christians have a constitutional right to use the word Allah to refer to God.

A High Court verdict on Thursday sparked peaceful protests by Muslims, raising fears of friction between the Malay Muslim majority and the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, who mainly practice Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.

Update: Church Attacks

9th January 2010. Based on article from timesonline.co.uk

Churches in Malaysia were bracing themselves for further attacks by Muslim protesters  after two arson attacks, apparently provoked by a controversy over the use by Christians of the word Allah.

Police were increasing their patrols of areas around churches and Christian communities were hiring security guards, after a Protestant church in the capital Kuala Lumpur was set on fire by a petrol bomb in the early hours of the morning. Muslim organisations have promised street protests over a court decision which would allow use of the Allah as the Malaysian language term for the Christian God.

The early morning attack destroyed the first floor offices of the three storey Metro Tabernacle Church, although the worship hall itself was undamaged and there were no injuries. Petrol bombs were also thrown into the Assumption Catholic Church and the Life Chapel Protestant church in the adjacent town of Petaling Jaya, but neither caused damage.

On Thursday, the website of the Malaysian judiciary was vandalised by a hacker with the alias Brainwash who left threatening messages apparently related to the court ruling. Mess with the best, die like the rest, read one message. Allah only restricted to Muslim only.

Since the court ruling on New Year's Eve, the website of the Herald, the Catholic Church's largest newspaper in the country, has also been vandalised with profanities by hackers.

Update: More church Attacks

12th January 2010. Based on article from christiantoday.com

Three more churches in Malaysia were targets of arson Sunday and another was vandalised in the latest wave of attacks on the country's Christian minority.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the All Saints Church in Malaysia's central Perak state left only a mark on the wall.

The outer wall of the Malacca Baptist Church in southern Malacca state, meanwhile, was splashed with black paint.

One day earlier, two firebombs were thrown at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in the Petaling Jaya suburb, leaving marks but no damage.

On Friday, three churches in Malaysia were attacked with firebombs. To date, at least eight churches have been targeted by arsonists and vandals.

Prime Minister Najib Razak condemned the attacks and gave assurances that the government would take whatever steps it can to prevent such acts. In an effort to repair ties, six Muslim NGOs have offered to work to help protect churches from further attacks.

Update: Shattered Reputations

18th January 2010. See article from timesonline.co.uk

There are fears that the recent church attacks will scare off crucial foreign investors and tourists, as well as contribute to a growing sense of alienation among the country's non-Muslim minorities, including Chinese, Malays and indigenous tribespeople.

The church attacks shattered notions of Malaysia as a model secular Muslim nation in the eyes of the international community, an opposition member of parliament, Charles Santiago, said: Although the firebombing of churches alarmed Malaysians, it underscored the magnitude of the real problem. It showed that after 52 years of living together, nation-building and national unity is in tatters.

The office of a law firm representing a Roman Catholic newspaper was ransacked on in a professional and well-organised break-in.

Update: Arsonists jailed

15th August 2010. Based on article from bbc.co.uk

Two Malaysian men have been found guilty of setting fire to a church in January in a row over non-Muslim use of the word Allah.

The two had claimed their burn injuries were sustained at a barbecue. But a judge in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, said this was a fabrication and jailed them for five years.

The attack on the Metro Tabernacle Church in Kuala Lumpur was the first of a series of attacks on houses of worship following the Allah row.