Malaysia Orders Catholic Paper To Cease Publishing Pending Court Decision

In Malaysia, the newspaper Catholic Herald has been in a dispute for some time with government officials over the paper's use of the term "Allah" in its Malay language edition to refer to God. In November, the Herald filed suit asking the courts to resolve the issue. (See prior posting.) AFP reported Thursday that in renewing the paper's license earlier this week, the Malaysian Home Ministry ordered the paper to completely cease publishing its Malay language edition until courts resolve the question of whether "Allah" is a term that can only be used by Muslims.