The Home Affairs Ministry has clarified today that only the Malay-language edition of the comic book ‘Ultraman The Ultra Power’ has been banned, and not the popular 1960s superhero.

“The character Ultraman is not banned, a restriction order is imposed on only this ‘Ultraman The Ultra Power’ edition,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its Facebook page today.

It added that the book was banned because it described the character Ultraman King as ‘Allah’ and the ministry is concerned that children reading it may be confused and equate the character to Allah.

The ban was gazetted on Feb 18, but only came into public attention yesterday when Bernama publicised the gazette.

When contacted for clarification, an official in the ministry’s Publication and Quranic Texts Control Division told Malaysiakini that only the Malay-language edition of the comic was affected, and not the English-language edition.

“This is because the English edition didn’t use the word ‘Allah’ and uses the word ‘God’ instead. To us, we don’t mind because it is not sensitive,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

To a question why the ministry did not simply instruct the publisher to amend the comic to remove the word, the official explained that the publisher could not be traced.

The comic lists Resign Publications as the publisher and Network Printers as the printing company. However, the publisher could not be found at the address provided, and no address is provided for the printer, the officer explained.

The officer added that the ministry is willing to reconsider the ban, if the word ‘Allah’ is removed.

Additional reporting by Kow Gah Chie.