Catholic publication Herald has received a show cause letter from the Home Ministry for allegedly publishing articles that are political and degrading to Islam.

Editor of the Catholic weekly Father Lawrence Andrew said the letter stated that Herald’s publication is not in accordance with terms in the permit to publish religious news.

"I have replied them and pointed out that the permit application form did not stipulate what constitutes religious articles.

"We also asked them what is their concept of religion because this is not defined in the permit conditions or the constitution," he told Malaysiakini.

Andrew also denied that an article published on June 22 entitled, 'America and Jihad' had degraded Islam or any other religion.

"The article was an ethical analysis about the world after the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre towers," he justified.

Herald, which publishes news and information for Catholics in Malaysia in four languages - English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil - has a circulation of around 13,000 and a readership estimated at 50,000.

It is also currently embroiled in a civil suit against the internal security minister and the government over the order that banned the Herald from using the word ‘Allah’ in the Bahasa Malaysia section of the publication late last year.

According to Andrew, Herald had received up to five letters so far since their permit was renewed in February and each one grows more serious than the other.

"First, it was a caution letter, then a reminder letter, then an advisory letter, followed by a warning letter and this one dated July 16 was a show cause letter," he explained.

"But the letter did not state any consequences or date to respond. It appears they are being very friendly and concerned about us," he said.

Focussed on Anwar

Meanwhile, another religious publication Catholic Asian News (CANews) was similarly told to stick to religious and not political news after receiving a letter from the ministry last month.

CANews editor Father OC Lim confirmed that they received such a letter and have sent a response to the ministry.

"We received a same-style letter to the Herald in July telling us to confine our articles to religion and not other aspects namely social and political issues.

"I’ve got a lawyer to draft a reply to the Home Ministry and we sent the letter two weeks ago. We will see what happens," he said.

The monthly publication of the Kuala Lumper archdiocese has a readership of 4,000 and is published in English.

Publications Control and Al-Quran Texts Unit senior officer Che Din Yusof when contacted confirmed that cautionary letters were sent to Herald but was unsure if any letters were sent to CANews.

"It is because what they did was contrary to the conditions in their permit. They are suppose to focus on religion but instead they focused on political issues on Anwar Ibrahim.

"We only sent a reminder, not a show cause letter. If they don’t comply with our reminder then we will send a show cause letter," he said.

He added that the ministry monitors these publications closely to make sure that they adhere to their respective permit conditions.

"We will see if they do it again. If they do, we will send another letter," he said.