Zahid: Herald’s ‘Allah’ ban extends to East Malaysia too
(MM) – The Catholic Church weekly, the Herald, cannot refer to God as “Allah” even in Sabah and Sarawak, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today, despite the prime minister’s assurance that East Malaysians were free to use the Arabic word.
Zahid said this was based on the recent Court of Appeal ruling that the Home Ministry’s decision to ban the use of the word “Allah” in the Herald was justified, but he stressed that the Al-Kitab, the Bahasa Malaysia translation of the Christian bible, is allowed to describe God as “Allah” as it is not technically a “publication”.
“It can be used in the Al-Kitab, but not in the Herald,” Zahid told reporters at his office here today, after meeting a Cambodian government minister.
“The Al-Kitab is not a publication; it’s a bible,” he added.
The Home Ministry seized copies of the Herald at the Kota Kinabalu airport last week for inspection, but cleared the newsletter for distribution yesterday after finding that the word “Allah” was not used in the weekly.
When asked if the ban of the word “Allah” was restricted to the Herald, Zahid said: “Refer to the court verdict”.
“I don’t want to go beyond what has been decided by the Court of Appeal,” he added.
According to Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew, around 2,000 copies of the weekly publication were seized at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport on Thursday, apparently on order of the Home Ministry.
The Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM), an umbrella body of Protestant churches, decried the confiscation as a violation of the Catholic Church’s right to distribute the newsletter to its own members.
Read more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/zahid-heralds-allah-ban-extends-to-east-malaysia-too
