"That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah" *

From BBC News, via Fark - "Malaysian row over word for "'God'" : "A church and Christian newspaper in Malaysia are suing the government after it decreed that the word "Allah" can only be used by Muslims."

Free speech is a funny thing. I remember during the whole flag-burning kerfuffle somebody asking if it would be OK to pour lighter fluid on a non-flammable metallic American flag and set it on "fire." Those are the kind of distinctions that must be made whenever it's decided that certain words cannot come out of somebody's mouth. But what if a person is indecisive about lunch? "I'll...ah...have the BLT." How about if we non-Muslims give Allah a "code name" so we won't offend Malaysians? "Mohammad's Big Guy?" "Dr. Jihad?" How about something simple like "Melvin?" "Melvin Akbar!" Eh, needs work.