BBC News reported on Sunday that the Malaysian government has reversed its earlier decision and has agreed to issue a license to a Christian newspaper that uses the word Allah to refer to God. Earlier, the Internal Security Ministry had refused to renew the permit of the Catholic newspaper, the Weekly Herald, for 2008 unless it stopped translating "God" as "Allah" in the Malay language version of the paper. The Ministry said that "Allah" could only be used to refer to the Muslim God. (See prior posting.)
UPDATE: Adding to the confusion, the AP reports that Malaysia's minister for Islamic affairs said on Thursday that the government still takes the position that the word "Allah" can only be used to refer to the Muslim God. The paper has filed a lawsuit to obtain approval for its use of the term in quoting from the Malay language Bible.
