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.
Known about this for years, finally someone in the Media got it
It seems the situation has been a problem since at least June 2005, judging from a Web page (which includes profanity) created by someone named "Kallahar," who said Yahoo barred him from registering his name. Apparently, "allah" was not banned by Yahoo until after 2000, the site says.
Mark one up for the good guys