Al Jazeera is reporting that the Malaysian government has agreed to allow a Catholic newspaper to use the term “Allah” to refer to God (in a Christian context) after earlier saying Allah could only refer to the God worshipped by Muslims.

The government gave no reason for the about-face. From Al Jazeera:

The government has previously warned The Herald, which has a circulation of 12,000 among Catholics, that its permit could be revoked if it continued to use the word “Allah” for God in its Malay-language section.

“Allah” is Arabic for God and means the same in Malay, Malaysia’s national language.

Christians in Malaysia have argued that the word “Allah” was used by Christians before Islam.