Herald In Trouble!

Quoted from Malaysiakini

Catholic weekly in quandary over permit
Dec 20, 07 12:52pm

The organ of the Catholic Church, Herald is facing problems in renewing its yearly publishing permit allegedly over the use of the word ‘Allah’ in the weekly’s Bahasa Malaysia section.

According to Church sources, the government is not happy with the use of the word ‘Allah’ by the weekly when referring to ‘God’ in Bahasa Malaysia.

The use of ‘Allah’ outside of Islam has previously stirred controversies in Malaysia. Four years ago, the Bible in Iban language was banned because it translated the word ‘God’ as Allah Taala, which resembles Islam’s name for God, ‘Allah’.

The ban was however lifted after protests from the Christian community.

The Herald, which is published in four languages - English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil - has a circulation of 12,000. The weekly’s permit is due to expire in two weeks.

The Herald - which publishes news and information for Catholics in Malaysia - have previously received written warnings pertaining to the content of their articles primarily those which touch on religious and political issues.

Most recently, the Herald frontpaged both the Bersih and Hindraf rally which saw tens of thousands protesters hitting the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Remove BM section

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang in a statement yesterday said the Home Ministry has imposed a new condition for the renewal of the Herald’s publication permit - that the BM section of the weekly be removed altogether.

This is confirmed by sources close to the Catholic weekly.

Lim has described Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration as one which has promoted religious polarisation the most as compared to four previous prime ministers.

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That news was reported in Malaysiakini just this afternoon. December to dismember indeed! After all the issues of temple demolitions, Bersih, Hindraf, Human Rights violations, I.S.A's and now this...

Why need to remove the Bahasa Melayu publicatons altogether? Is this the only viable choice or solutions after all? Pissed Off!

ciao!