It all began with Animah Ferrar's High time to learn about other religions.

In her letter to Malaysiakini, she urged everyone to learn something about one another's religious beliefs and practices. It was the following paragraphs that spark off a rather curious debate in Malaysiakini: 

"While it makes eminent sense to present the (religious) teachings in the language(s) with which the target audience is most comfortable, to avoid confusion and suspicion, writers and translators should avoid using terminology exclusive to a particular religion in articles or books about another religion.

"An example would be using 'Allah' (the Quranic name of God) in books on, say, Hinduism or Christianity, which might be construed as an attempt to mislead Muslims to believe that the book is about Islam. At this point in time, we need to be sensitive about such things."

Following this, readers argued over the exclusivity of the use of the word 'Allah', and it led to a related issue on whether non-Muslims could use the greetings 'Assalamualaikum'.

The following is a selection of the letters on the debate (click on 'Related Stories', see left column)