(CNSNews.com) -The government of Muslim-majority Malaysia will not renew a Catholic newspaper's license to publish unless it stops using the word "Allah" to denote God.

The editor of the Herald has come up against an issue that has affected inter-religious relations before in the Southeast Asian country, which is often cited as an example of pluralistic democracy in the Muslim world.

Shortly before Christmas, the Internal Security Ministry sent a directive ordering the weekly to drop the use of the word "Allah," when referring to the God who Christians worship, editor Fr. Lawrence Andrew said Wednesday.

Instead, the newspaper should use the word "Tuhan," which is a general term for God in the language spoken by the majority of Malaysians, Bahasa Malaysia.

A ministry official was quoted as saying that "Allah" referred only to the Muslim god, and its use was designed to confuse Muslims.

About 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people are Muslim Malays. Large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities are Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and followers of other smaller faiths.

The constitution guarantees religious freedom, but Islam is the official religion, despite the fact that 40 percent of the population is not Muslim. Furthermore, the constitution states that all Malays are Muslim -- a stipulation critics say makes it difficult for a Malay to convert to or profess another faith. Minorities also frequently complain about discrimination.

Ironically, the clarification is described as including the following:


Golly gee, its hard to imagine how anyone might have got the idea that there is an absence of freedom of religion in Malaysia.