Comments on: Yahoo Mail reverses ban on 'allah' in usernames

Lifts prohibition after online flap. Says ban was meant to prevent people from promoting hate by combining "allah" with defamatory language.

[n3td3v]

bin laden is banned from yahoo mail

maybe he'll bring it up on his next video tape...

[n3td3v]

after 2001

he's been banned since the 9/11 attacks...

[Thinkforachange]

yahoo only trying to protect people

u cant blame yahoo too much, they only trying to prevent abuse by people using 'allah', i think it's a perfectly fine explanation. there are alot of prejudice people out there.. hating muslims. and face it, people are just haters and will do some really stupid/hateful things including using emails to spread hate for fun.

[Nathan Lunn]

If that was their intention they did a poor job of it

Censorship rarely (read that as never) protects people from prejudice and hate speech. If Yahoo's true intention was to protect people, they should enforce the existing rules in the TOS. Do you really think that a hate monger would be deterred simply because he (the demographic is primarily male) can't register [e-mail]? He'd change it to [e-mail] and go about spreading his hate message.

[dave aszenine]

protect?

censorship = ignorance

if we can't give ourselves credit to distinguish between right and wrong, then we don't need a free will or conscience

[mcepat]

do they ban buddha or jesus as well?

If not gimme a break? Allah is just one of many many many gods of worship

[Gronar Snaggletooth]

Jihad against Yahoo!

Just wait until those cartoon protesting wackos here about this!

[n3td3v]

holy war already started

Employees have been told to stay indoors while they are air lifted from the roofs of the Sunnyvale campus.

[KsprayDad]

Got Mine

[e-mail]

[nrlz]

Linda Callahan disgusted?

Linda was "disgusted" by this? Either she is a major techno geek and absolutely must get an email address with her name in it lest she be shunned by her hacker friends, or she has a psychotic symptom that causes her to react violently and emotionally to trivial matters such as the color of the sky.

[KsprayDad]

Disgusted

She was disgusted at Yahoo's policy of allowing other religious figures terms like God and Jesus and not Allah. The effect of that 'disgusting' (irrational?) reaction of Yahoo's caused the problem.

[swaer]

why 'Osama'

Good day to everyone,
I just want to add to your information that the name 'Osama' is a very common name for Arabian people.. 'Osama' in the Arabic language is one of the names of the lion.
Almost all Arabian names have meanings, either names of flowers, brave or beautiful animals, or adjectives..
The ban of 'Osama' as a username is pointless for many Arabs, it is just like banning 'Tom' or 'john'.