Religious tensions flare in Malaysia

Canings and church firebombings have some wondering whether the nation’s Muslims are becoming more conservative and less tolerant of Christians and other minority groups.

By Mark Magnier

3/19/2010 Malaysia (Los Angeles Times) – The Metro Tabernacle Church, a storefront with metal shutters, sits gutted, black smoke stains on the concrete pillars bearing witness to the intense fire that destroyed the property.

The attacks on this and more than a dozen other houses of worship in January, followed in February by the caning of three Muslim teenagers for extramarital sex and a kerfuffle this month over an insulting act during a Christian service have prompted some soul-searching in Malaysia.

The spark for the wave of violence was a successful challenge by the Herald, a Catholic weekly, of a government ban on continued use of the word “Allah” by Christians to describe God. The court has stayed its late-December decision pending a government appeal.

He flips through a reprinted Malay-Latin dictionary first published in 1631, referencing its definition of “Allah.” His point: Christianity has been using the term throughout the Muslim world for centuries without a problem, including in Egypt, Indonesia and Syria; its use in the Arab world predates Islam itself.

“Who are they to say what word we use or not?” the soft-spoken priest said, beneath a picture of himself meeting the pope.

Conservative Muslims see it differently. They want Christians to use an alternative term, “Tuhan,” fearing that continued use of “Allah” could lead Muslims to convert to Christianity. (Such conversion is forbidden in Malaysia.)

“Using the word ‘Allah’ can create confusion,” said Ibrahim Ali, a member of Parliament with the Perkasa party. “Malaysia has its own history and culture, and others should respect that.”