Malaysian churches attacked with firebombs

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Three churches in Kuala Lumpur attacked after court reverses ban on Christians using the word 'Allah' to mean 'God'


Three Malaysian churches were attacked with firebombs, causing extensive damage to one, as Muslims pledged today to prevent Christians from using the word "Allah", escalating religious tensions in the multiracial country.


Many Malay Muslims, who make up 60% of the population, are incensed by a recent high court decision to overturn a ban on Roman Catholics using Allah as a translation for God in the Malay-language edition of their main newspaper, the Herald.


The government had said that Allah, an Arabic word that predates Islam, was exclusive to the faith. It refused to make an exception, even though the Herald's Malay edition is read only by Christian indigenous tribes in the remote states of Sabah and Sarawak.


At Friday prayers at two main mosques in downtown Kuala Lumpur, young worshippers carried banners and vowed to defend Islam.


Read more @ Guardian


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You — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 - 22:51

More Malaysian churches attacked in Allah dispute


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.


Read more @ BBC News