Yahoo Mail Reverses Ban on 'allah' in Usernames

Yahoo Mail Reverses Ban on 'allah' in Usernames

malebolgia on 23 February 2006 - 04:40 · 44 comments & 9866 views

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Yahoo Mail will now let people register usernames that include the word "allah," after a ban designed to thwart prejudice went astray.

The policy reversal, announced Wednesday, came too late for Linda Callahan of Ashfield, Mass., who set up a Google Gmail account after being rejected by Yahoo Mail because of the presence of "allah" in her name, said her son, Ed Callahan.

"She was disgusted by (Yahoo's policy) and saddened," he said. "It was discriminatory. They disallowed 'allah' but allowed 'jesus' and 'god,' and I don't think there is a rational explanation for that." The existence of the ban made a bit of a splash on the Web after it was reported in The Daily Hampshire Gazette on Friday and picked up by The Register and Slashdot this week.

News source: C|Net News.com

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#1 physarl on 23 Feb 2006 - 04:57

and I noticed.. the single word "allah" itself is already been taken for yahoo ID.. :|

#2 Cyranthus on 23 Feb 2006 - 04:59

haha, thats funny

#3 jivemastert on 23 Feb 2006 - 05:20

yeah, I went over and tried to register allah as my ID and it was already taken... woulda been cool.

(1 reply) #4 crimsonhead on 23 Feb 2006 - 05:34

I'll be right back. I gotta go send an email to jesus.

#4.1 Tomi on 23 Feb 2006 - 05:53

LMFAO.

(2 replies) #5 Yoursexyheroux on 23 Feb 2006 - 05:38

I don't see why she is so upset, jesus is a name. Many spanish people are named it. It seems like it would be yahoos choice not to allow the use of allah becuase personally i think the connotation of allah and god are different even though they have the same meaning. Also its a free email account they should be able to restrict whatever they want to.

#5.1 ricknl on 23 Feb 2006 - 06:46

Indeed Allah and God mean the same things. Actually the world Allah is much older than Islam, and it simply means God in Arabic.

Connotation of Allah and God may vary based on the country you live in. Forexample Turkish Christians would use the word Allah, and you'd see the word in many churches of Istanbul; however in Dutch they would translate the world "Allah" as if it is an ancient Arabic God who is different than the one Christians believe in.

Should a free email account service provider be able to do anything they'd want to? Maybe, but on the otherhand we have the right to have an idea about what they do. Just like the lady in the story does.

For instance, what would you think if yahoo didn't allow you to register if you chose a religon other than Christianity, or a skin color other than white?

#5.2 mrbester on 23 Feb 2006 - 12:37

This is like when AOL decided to ban certain swear words, specifically arse and the c-word. Suddenly people couldn't write that they supported Arsenal of that they came from Scun thorpe.

Edit: And I note that neowin does the same, so a space has been put into the town's name...

(1 reply) #6 cartri on 23 Feb 2006 - 06:37

Just some explanations:

1 - "Jesus" is a name, but first it was a word meaning "Jeovah is the Savior" or the hebraic IHVshH
2 - "Jeovah" (or IHVH) is the hebrew name of god (since the first hebrews didn't believed that he was the only existing god, but elected him as the only god to rule theyr tribes)
3 - "Allah" is not only a name but a WORD and means purely and simply "GOD". In that general terms. Its not used as a god with a name, its only used as "god"

Im atheist but history studant (and IT Professional, lol), and always observe how people missunderstand the word allah - in the movies it's never translated to "god" and it always makes a bad (worse?) image of the region.

By the way, have you already tried out localized versions of yahoo mail? like mail.yahoo.com.br or mail.yahoo.uk ? Maybe there you still might have "allah" login disponible.

god@yahoo would be nice, lol, somebody got it?

#6.1 physarl on 23 Feb 2006 - 07:49

for yahoo!mail...
when u've chosen "abc" as yur ID, and abc@yahoo.com as yur mail address (or other localised yahoo)
yahoo won't allow u to create other localised yahoo mail address with the same ID..

(4 replies) #7 Croquant on 23 Feb 2006 - 07:33

Naturaly, you can expect an radical islamic cleric to condem this organise a violent street protest. It's their way of saying "We love you" over there. That and blowing themselves up.

#7.1 Elite_graphix on 23 Feb 2006 - 09:31

ohh what a productive argument..

get a life.

Allah is simply the arabic translation of God.

#7.2 nhurtley on 23 Feb 2006 - 09:54

Nobody likes a troll.

#7.3 Yakkob on 23 Feb 2006 - 10:45

Nah,

First they would have to make a cartoon out of it, then it would be really serious!

#7.4 Guol on 23 Feb 2006 - 12:12

@ Croquant:
yeh go tell someone who looks like they give a crap...this is a tech forum...keep it this way..
Troll.

@Yakkob:
yeh, you're so original and productive. aren't you?
have you ever considered that certain things that you might find as a joke, may offend some people?
really...maybe you should wake up to the light or something.
Troll + Poser.

#8 matt74441 on 23 Feb 2006 - 08:58

It seemed like a weird thing to ban in the first place. Like if they were going to ban that particular word, then why stop there?

(1 reply) #9 em_te on 23 Feb 2006 - 10:17

I thought it was because Islam law forbids the portrayal of God in any form and no other religion has that restriction? Hence, "allah" is forbidden, but anything else including "god", "buddah", "vishnu", etc. are allowed.

#9.1 Guol on 23 Feb 2006 - 12:08

Allah is the arabic word for God.
Therefore, if you are say, a christian and you speak arabic youd would still call God - 'Allah'.

Thus, if you were a Muslim and say you lived in a non-english, non-arabic speaking country then you prbably wouldn't say 'Allah' but say God in that language instead.

So, saying Allah isn't actually portraying God in any form...it's more like just giving Him a title, which is perfectly alright.

[though i dont really approve of people using any religously related emails at all. i.e. jesus, god, allah, buddah, etc. ]

Hope this helped you understand a bit better

(1 reply) #10 Elior on 23 Feb 2006 - 12:47

Heh, my last name is Ashkenazi, and Hotmail didn't let me use it, because of the nazi at the end. (I'm actually Jewish, so the name dosen't even have a connection to the Nazi's), oh well :]

#10.1 D4F1N on 24 Feb 2006 - 05:36

Yes my name is dafin aziz , and hotmail wont let me use it, because of the same reason my jewish brother Elior got denied for, nazi in my name! (i am muslim, and again the names has no link to nazi's), I was a little ****ed at first, but understand and can accept why this filter was created, just like how one of the words in this sentence is.

Can we please stop using caps, And CALM DOWN people, can we stay on TOPIC please.

Thank you, carry on debating, not trolling/ flame-baiting ...
(Can the mods clean this page up please)

Last edited by D4F1N on 24 Feb 2006 - 05:46

#11 Dice on 23 Feb 2006 - 12:54

Heh wow I see. I guess it's for the best, not sure if people would like to see a bunch of Nazilover101@hotmail.com.

(4 replies) #12 bravo369 on 23 Feb 2006 - 13:37

I wonder if I can register Mohammed and cause more idiots to protest over something so stupid.

#12.1 amanechoir on 23 Feb 2006 - 15:23

IF you haven't noticed, there are thousands if not millions of people with that name in this world.

Obviously you didn't know know what the fuss over Muhammad was all about.

#12.2 bravo369 on 23 Feb 2006 - 17:16

yes I know that many people are named mohammed and yes i know what all the fuss is about and frankly, I think it's stupid and I think they're stupid for making this argument about their religion and torching and killing people in the process. Kinda hypocritical if you ask me.

#12.3 D4F1N on 24 Feb 2006 - 05:51

Zhang is the most common surname in the world, wanna know the most common firstname is?

@bravo369:please delete or edit your post, someone may just sue you for libel,Actually millions of people potentially can sue you.

Neowin mods where are you, neowin may get sued in the cross-fire!

Seriously though bravo369, that was such a dumb comment you made, how old are you?

Last edited by D4F1N on 24 Feb 2006 - 06:05

#12.4 bravo369 on 24 Feb 2006 - 18:50

what is so bad about my post? i think most people seemed to have posted that banning allah in usernames was stupid. and if it's about my comment that they are being hypocritical then i'd love for you to explain how I'm wrong. It's like me telling you "Thou shalt not kill" but that I'll kill you if you make fun of me. I can post a dozen articles about these so called religious people who are protesting something so stupid and people are dying and newspaper headquarters are being burned and embassies being stormed. so how exactly am i wrong for calling them hypocrites?

(1 reply) #13 kirk26 on 23 Feb 2006 - 14:05

Now I can the Allah69 username now.

#13.1 some214 on 23 Feb 2006 - 14:30

LOL

#14 cartri on 23 Feb 2006 - 15:43

Even because... jesus69 is already taken...
lol

#15 Adequate on 24 Feb 2006 - 00:35

lol religion

(3 replies) #16 SimplyPotatoes on 24 Feb 2006 - 00:35

im a strict muslim and im very offended people use allah in their email. i think yahoo should keep the ban.

#16.1 dexcophan on 24 Feb 2006 - 02:48

i just want to say something my muslim friend...

- over-react is a sign of stupidity -

#16.2 SimplyPotatoes on 24 Feb 2006 - 03:44

treat your god however you want, infidel

#16.3 dexcophan on 24 Feb 2006 - 07:24

no, u wrong, the truth is, treat god according to what god and his apostle has command, nothing more and nothing less, spoonhead

#17 sLm4ever on 24 Feb 2006 - 02:53

btw ^^ .... half of the Saudis are named "abdu-allah" ... actually the name of the king of Saudi Arabia is "abdu-allah" .... and all of them can't take this name now....

and about the mass that they are doing lately ... it's alright ... there r red lines ... but that cartons have went to far .... and as I said it's fine for them to be angry about this ... but they are doing it in a totally wrong way

#18 cartri on 24 Feb 2006 - 07:30

There are lots of different islamic religions.
We can't judge all of them by only one.

(1 reply) #19 msfan on 24 Feb 2006 - 09:38

well i have to agree with some and disagree with some.
Little info about "ALLAH"

Muslims believe only one GOD and are so strict about it they used "ALLAH" as a name to call him.
Why?
Here's one of the reason why..........Allah is an arabic word for GOD and it (probably only one word) has no plural form. It's singular. There is nothing like "ALLAHs" whereas God has a plural form Gods.

Eventhough i'm not a muslim but would support the YAHOO's ban on the word.

btw muslims should never ever have to protest so violently.........all they had to do was boycotte the prods. this is more of a business world than a religious one because ppl understand business better than religion now a days.

#19.1 Magallanes on 26 Feb 2006 - 13:39

We (christian) are in the deep equal to the muslims, we used the violence and the terrorism for put ours ideals (for example the days of the inquisition). And the jews are the same "breed" in the use of the "any means necesary" in "pro" of their deity

So, we cannot blame to the "muslim" so lightly about their violence. The people is violence not for religion but for greedy or for misleading. For instance any religion say KILL = SIN but many people claim that there are "some exceptions.." and it's the main problem!.

#20 bardos on 24 Feb 2006 - 13:09

believing is generally a harmless condition... believing in anything. Believe just means you personally are convinced about a certain shape that reality has. No problem there, that's a pretty inalienable right in most civilized areas of the planet. Until you identify so much with this belief that you not only want to make others believe in exactly the same reality as you do and but also feel that those who don't believe as you do are some kind of garbage, as well you will feel insulted if others put down your belief (view of reality). all religions seem to have "believers" who are into this type of "belief".

(2 replies) #21 lexp on 25 Feb 2006 - 10:06

I agree with ban. "Allah" word is used too often to justify terrorism.

#21.1 sLm4ever on 25 Feb 2006 - 16:35

and I don't agree with u ^^ ... "Allah" is used to justify "god" ....
and those terrorists are saying that they are Muslims ... but I say (as a Muslim) ... that this is totally wrong ... not only me but most of the Muslims here don't agree with this terrorists

#21.2 Magallanes on 26 Feb 2006 - 13:47

Also the world "freedom" is justified for kill people, in other words :terrorism.

#22 sLm4ever on 26 Feb 2006 - 19:26

Yahoo Mail reverses ban on 'allah' in usernames
http://news.com.com/Yahoo+Mail+reverses+ba..._3-6042062.html

#23 Interize on 15 May 2006 - 22:58

extremism and freedom are two complete seperate concepts pls dont confuse them Magallanes.

btw the world 'Allah' is not just restricted to and exclusivly used by muslims, I have Arab Christian Friends who use this word in the same capacity.

I also have to point out, for people that didnt know (more than you think!

,
that Jews, Christians & Muslims worship the same ONE God.

Quote -

And We sent ‘Jesus son of Mary following in their footsteps, confirming the Torah that came before him. We gave him the Gospel containing guidance and light, confirming the Torah that came before it, and as guidance and admonition for those who guard against evil. (Qur’an, 5:46)

</rant>

Dafin.

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Yahoo Mail Reverses Ban on 'allah' in Usernames

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