There is an unprecedented wave of assaults on Christian houses of worship in Malaysia, in a growing dispute over the use of the word ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims.
The seven attacks on churches are directly related to a recent High Court decision permitting non-Muslims, including Christians, to use the word ‘Allah’ in Malay-language publications as a term for God. The Court has overturned a Government ban on the use of the word.
The Government has appealed the decision and has been granted a stay, and the dispute has swelled into a nation-wide confrontation, with demonstrations at mosques and passionate uproars on the Internet.
Arsonists struck three churches and a convent school early on Sunday and splashed black paint on the outside of a Baptist church. This followed the firebombing of four other churches on Friday and Saturday. No injuries were reported, and only one of the churches, Metro Tabernacle in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, suffered extensive damage.
It is reported that despite the attacks, thousands of parishioners showed up for Sunday services presenting a united front to the unidentified attackers.
Some political analysts and politicians accuse Prime Minister Najib Razak of raising racial and religious tensions as he attempts to solidify his Malay base. On Saturday, the Prime Minister visited the church most badly damaged in Kuala Lumpur and promised a grant of 500,000 ringgit (£92,000) to rebuild it.
About 1,000 worshippers were briefed by parish priest Phillips Muthu on the incident and told to be patient.
‘I told them we don't want to blame any people, any quarter, any religion. We are peaceful and we are here to offer our prayer for the nation,’ he told reporters at the church, where a fire-bomb damaged part of the grounds.
A Roman Catholic newspaper, The Herald, led the legal fight against the Government’s ban on behalf of religious and ethnic groups. Its editors want to use the world ‘Allah’ in the paper's Malay-language edition, arguing that it is the only Malay word for ‘God’.
About 9 percent of Malaysia’s population of 28 million people are Christian, most of them Chinese or Indian. Analysts say this is the first outright confrontation between Muslims and Christians in that region.