There have been more attacks on churches in Malaysia, in a growing dispute over the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims.

The police say petrol bombs were thrown at a church and a convent school in the northern state of Perak, and at a church on the island of Sarawak.

Another church in the south of the country was daubed with black paint.

The attacks come days after four churches near the capital, Kuala Lumpur, were hit by petrol bombs.

Religious tensions in Malaysia have increased since a court ruled last month that a Roman Catholic newspaper could use the word Allah in its Malay-language edition to describe the Christian god.

The petrol bomb thrown at a guard house of a Catholic convent school in the town of Taiping, about 300km (185 miles) from Kuala Lumpur, did not explode.

Several broken bottles and paint thinners were found at the church next to the convent and one of the country's oldest Anglican churches, All Saints, also in Taiping, Reuters news agency reported.

A church and convent were attacked in Taiping
Arson attempts were made at two sites in Taiping

Police and church officials said bricks and stones were thrown at glass windows of the Good Shepherd Catholic church in Miri, a logging and oil town in Sarawak state.

In southern Malacca state, the outer wall of the Malacca Baptist Church was splashed with black paint, police said.

Sarawak and neighbouring Sabah state are home to most of Malaysia's Christians, who account for 9.1% of the country's 28 million people.

"The situation is under control and the people should not be worried," Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

Correspondents say some of Malaysia's majority Muslim community suspect Christians of wanting to use the word Allah to encourage Muslims to convert to Christianity.

The government has appealed against the ruling, in contrast to countries like Indonesia, Egypt and Syria where Christian minorities freely use the Arabic word to refer to God.

General secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, Rev Hermen Shastri, said Christians would not be intimidated by the attacks.

"We all have to stand together to stamp out terror perpetuated by these extremist groups," he said, according to Associated Press news agency.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8450713.stm

why everytime they got to resort to violent act like this? and it always start from this religion...

Allah means God so how come they're getting upset with people calling God for God? I mean God is the same no matter which religion you are (if your religion does say there is a God that is), it's the same diety.

Those who knowingly provoked violence are just as much at fault as those who reacted by violence.

I have no qualm over the use of the word Allah by the Christian. It was in the origin of the Christian itself. furthermore i got a feeling this issue was played by UMNO to discredit certain Political Party and to give UMNO more religious credibility. plus, i also believe certain parties in the Catholic church deliberately raise the issue while knowing the response they'll get, probably in their bid to make it looks like the Christians in this country are victims to a religious violence perpetrated by Muslims. I would go on by saying that UMNO and the Catholic Church are working together in this, but i think that's really pushing it too far.

As a Catholic I find this sentence highly insulting, what proof do you have of this.

This has nothing to do with Catholics. We have been using the word Allah for decades, the only reason this is an issue is because the govnt made it an issue. Prior to this even though Catholics and other Christian denominations were using Allah, there were no protests, why suddenly now. Its because the govnt continues to make an issue out of it. The High Court has ruled, the Constitution is clear, yet the Federal govnt continues to appeal. The rights of Catholics and other non Muslim religions have continually been eroded over the last 5 decades. During this time it seems that to Muslims only the rights of Muslims and Islam matter. Muslims demand that other religions respect Islam, yet show absolutely no respect in return. Come on show me the "Great Islamic fairness" that Muslims keep preaching about, I have yet to see it practiced in Malaysia.

Till this day I have not heard an apology from the Islamic journalist for desecrating the holy eucharist, the most sacred of all Catholic rituals. Tell me how do you feel personally about this episode, or is it not important to you, so you don't even know what I'm talking about. Another example perhaps of a Muslims insensitivity of an episode that is important to someone else but not to them. Imams defended and justified the actions of these journalists, a perfect example of how the only rights that matter in Malaysia are those of Muslims, the rights of other religions, effectively can "get fu-ked", as far as Muslims are concerned.

We'll see now how well the govnt protects the churches and temples. I wonder if the same level of protection would be given if they were mosques that were being burned.

I've said i don't have the problem if Christian decide to use the word Allah. It's within my knowledge that Christian have used that word even before the coming of Islam. furthermore, i suspect that UMNO were less concern about the "sanctity of the word Allah" then their concern of appearing more Islamic in the eyes of the Malay Muslims. If you look earlier, several top Ulama (UMNO Ulama not included) including PAS leaderships said that it's okay for Christian to use the word Allah. Unfortunately UMNO mobs move in and quickly discredited the few party who see reason, using a narrow view and lack of knowledge of the general muslims as a weapons.

My concern here is who perpetrated the attack? I acknowledge there's some Muslim, probably some UMNO hotheads who pepetrated the attack. But there's also a possibility that the Christians itself perpetrated the attack. Attacking their own Church and then cry out injustice and use this to create pressure.

Dumb as dumb gets. It's just a word, for Allah's sake...

Arab Christians call God Allah and never had an issue with Arab Muslims about this; WTF is wrong with those Malaysians?

Again, this is highly insulting, how dare you try to deflect the blame on to Christians when you have no proof of this, just a hunch. Would Muslims attack their own mosques for political gain, would you trade your religion for politics? You refuse to accept that it is Muslims who are wholly responsible for this, deflecting blame instead on to the victims. Open your eyes, look at the last 5 decades, it is Muslims in Malaysia who have become intolerant of other religions.

I have a feeling the root of the problem is more political than religious. Most probably UMNO tactics to cement itself as the guardian of Malay and Muslim rights, what with PAS saying it doesn't mind non-Muslims using the word Allah.


Anyway I find it really silly that the Muslims should protest the use of the word Allah. If they want to ban us Christians from using that word then logically they should be banned from using the word 'God' or the phrase 'God bless you', which are not originally used by Muslims.

.

Who would have guess that! Are Mahathir and Khairi secretly Jewish?
Are they tryiing to get the Muslims and Christians to kill each other and than let the Jews take over?
Maybe LKY who seems to harbour Jewish sentiments is also part of the conspiracy.
Come, share your information with us kumanddie.

in malaysia the chinese should be on top and in control the brown malays below... that should fix things.

you mean chinese woman on top of malay man.

malay man = epic fail
just like brown pinoy = epic fail

Scutarii = epic fail

those people who attack churches only prove to the world that Islam teaches violence.

I mean, most other religions have stopped violence in the name of God, except these uncivilised cavemen.

I don't think so. Its like saying the Almighty Christ from Christianity is the same like Shiva / Siddarth Buddha, idols from both deistic Hinduism & Buddhism.

Each religion is distinct. Jewish definitely rejects the idea of 3-in-1 theology that Christian favored in their God.

Nope, in MY, religion didn't start this. Violent clashes like in May 13 1969 was started by racial sentiments, Memali incident in 1980s was caused mostly between extremist of deviant Muslim splinter group vs the Police, & the failed idiotic quest of another wannabe martial art society with deviant teachings - Al-Maunah who wants to rebel against MY Govt.

The spate of churches attacks by unknown perpetrators are widely dismissed as another attempts by third party to detract current crises from public view, like hiking fuel prices & skyrocketing prices of basic foodstuffs & services.

Malaysians do not fell to such lame attempts to divide us along religious conflicts. We're not like Indonesia oe even Egypt or Pakistan or even India where religious clashes are the norm.

Besides, many Muslims & even Christians in MY shrugged these events by the wayside, it is instigated by those with political intents, & try to gain political mileage. Some even suspects that these attempts are to be blamed to Islamist party like PAS, but in the end, it was not so. Public sentiments obviously blamed UMNO fringe supporters, as the only Muslims that are so fussy & uptight about the Allah's issue are the Muslims NGOs with UMNO supports.

What do Islamist PAS says that ruffles UMNO's secular Muslims - Allah can be used by Christians.

Kinda fascinating isn't it, that the secular UMNO Muslims getting jittered over Allah's issue, but the Islamist are being more rational & cool about it.

Perpetrators already caught & tried. However, Govt do not want to publicised the trials as it may caused well, controversies & unnecessary tensions. Irregardless, the perpetrators are basically your gangsta bikers, the Mat Rempits so famous for their illegal motorbike races, blamed for petty theft such as snatch cases up to heavy case of gang rape & murder case.

Now, most MY knew that these local Rempit bikers hooligans usually did something due to money, & pure youth discontent fed with adrenaline rush from their activities. General sentiments is that, a group of Rempit bikers is being paid by someone to conduct these incidents. Generally Rempit bikers are noisy muthafakka with a nuisance, but religious fanatics? Now that is laughable as Rempit bikers are as religious as cats are nice to mice!

The problem is WHO paid them? WHO is behind all these? Then answer is ... well, most popular sentiments from the streets from regular Ahmad, Ah Beng & Muthu is that well ... the political governing party with the kris emblem ....

Only UMNO supporters are making the noise, especially the UMNO Youth Wing. Is it coincidental that this UMNO Youth have been involved in social activities to get close & 'reformed' the wayward Mat Rempits. I don't see any Islamist with prayer cap ever cavorted the Rempits juveniles. But UMNO Youth leaders, ohhh yess .... Is it any wonder that the current rakyat suspects the very obvious?

Besides, the issue finally cooled down after rational head butts in. The Home Minister has said that in the states that do not have Sultans & Federal Territories, Allah's term can be used by Christians. In other states with Sultanate, Allah's use by Christians is disallowed. There you go, give and take. Christians can use Allah term in Penang, Sabah & Sarawak, Malacca, Federal Territories of Labuan / Putrajaya & KL. As for the states with Sultans, given that Sharia Laws are within each Sultanate discretions, yes there are provisions in the Sharia that disallow usage of Allah's term by non-Muslims.

The same can be said of non Muslims too. Did we Muslims ever took to the streets when our mosques are defiled with pigs heads which happens a few years back & lately now too? No we didn't, did we?

Elements that try to disturb the religious & racial balance come from both side of the fence. Thankfully, Malaysians are far too clever to fall for the such lame & dirty tactics.

"Allah" is an Arabic word. The Malay word for God is "Tuhan". The conflict - between the Malay muslim and the Christians in Malaysia - is over the right to use the Arabic word "Allah" in conducting Christian religious activities.

When conducting Muslim religious activities in his own tongue, namely, Bahasa Melayu, the Malay muslim doesn't use the Malay word "Tuhan". He won't say, "Tuhan tolong aku!" (which is proper Malay) but prefers the entreaty "Allah, tolong aku!" (which is actually pidgin Malay.)

When conducting Christian religious activities in English, the Christian Church is quite content to use the word "God". But when it conducts those activities in Bahasa Melayu, it apes the Malay muslim in dropping the Malay word "Tuhan" and uses the Arabic word "Allah" to refer to God.

Consequently, the Malay muslim objects to the Christian Church appropriating his style of using the Arabic word "Allah" and considers it an encroachment on Muslim religious activities in Malaysia.

To be fair, the Christian Church should drop the use of the Arabic word "Allah" and replace it with "Tuhan" when conducting Christian religious activities in Bahasa Melayu. This is as proper as using the word "God" when conducting religious activities in English. To persist in squabbling with the Malay muslim over a meaningless way of using an Arabic word is not Christ-like and downright stupid to boot.

why the hell muslim is controlling christian groups anyway...if their members is so weak and can easily twisted by a simple word that is there problem.. wtf they care if that word is not christ-like..wtf they care?

I for one would have to agree to the statement above. Its bad all around for politics to get mixed up with religion, in addition to word meaning ignorance.
Allah is tuhan = god. Whichever way you see it, they all mean the same thing. So it is obviously not wrong to use Allah. Refer to an oxford dictionary, not those cheap subcontrated ones.