Multiracial Malaysia stunned by religious violence (Feature)

By Julia Yeow Jan 19, 2010, 2:04 GMT

Kuala Lumpur - A recent spate of church attacks and street protests in multiracial Malaysia has done severe damage to the confidence of a nation that prides itself on being a model of moderate Muslim governance.

In just more than a week this month, nine churches were fire-bombed or vandalized in one of the country's worst spates of religious violence.

The incidents were triggered by a recent High Court order allowing the use of the word Allah in the Malay-language version of a Roman Catholic newsletter The Herald.

While Muslim and non-Muslim leaders alike have condemned the attacks, the general reaction from minority groups has been one of discontent and anger.

'I think it's been blown out of proportion,' said Fong Shiau Chen, a Buddhist housewife with a course on Islamic studies to her credit.

'It seems unreasonable that the word Allah, which is used by different religions all over the world, is banned for the Christians here in Malaysia,' Fong said.

The court ruling came after the government had earlier banned the use of the word, which means God in Arabic, in all non-Muslim publications. It has now filed an appeal against the High Court ruling.

Critics of the government's stance have maintained that the word Allah predates Islam and has been used for decades by Malay-speaking Christians and even Sikhs to refer to God. Banning its usage would be tantamount to a gross infringement on their rights to practice their religion freely, they argued.

Among those minority believers, the church attacks have brought out a sense of insecurity.

'There is an obvious lack of tolerance in this whole case bordering on ignorance,' said Goh Lee Yin, a local banker and Protestant Christian.

'If this is an indication of what we, the minority, can expect in the future, then the future truly appears very bleak,' she said.

Goh, 32, also argued the fact that the government had filed an appeal against the court decision showed clearly that it was more keen to appease the calls of radical Muslims than to stand up for the constitutional freedom and rights of minorities.

'This case has undoubtedly been the single most negative incident in [Prime Minister] Najib Razak's leadership,' veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said. 'It raises serious questions on the future direction of this country.'

'While the actual usage of the word Allah may not affect many Malaysians on the street, the implications of this ban as well as the shocking church attacks that followed is something Malaysians of all religions must be concerned about,' Lim said.

He urged the government to drop its appeal against the High Court ruling as a sign that it truly respected the religion and practises of minority groups.

'We were all initially numb, shocked and wondered why our church was targeted,' said Joanna Loy, 31, a member of the Metro Tabernacle church in suburban Kuala Lumpur, which suffered the worst damage in the attacks.

'We're thankful that no lives were lost, and we can only continue to pray that something good will come out of this,' she said, adding that the church and its leaders had publicly issued statements calling for calm and forgiveness after the congregation was attacked January 8.

'I don't see this as something that will affect the way I see and interact with my non-Muslim friends and neighbours,' Nur Aini Razilla, a Muslim nurse, said of the attacks.

'I don't feel like there's something bad coming out of this,' she added. 'Maybe it's just another political motive.'

However, critics said the wider effects of the case have yet to be felt by the general public and an enforced ban on the word Allah could signal a future trend of religious oppression and intolerance.

'The general mosaic of building a diverse nation has been shaken,' Lim said.

'For those of us who look at the longer-term view, this is of great concern because we appear to no longer enjoy an open and free society,' he warned.

Malaysia's constitution declares it to be secular state with Islam as the official religion. The constitution also guarantees the freedom of religion for all its citizens.

About 60 per cent of Malaysia's 28 million people are Muslims while around 10 per cent are Christians, including 850,000 Catholics.

The majority of the country's Muslims are Malay-speaking, but Catholics and other Christians argued that more than half of their fellow believers - those from indigenous groups, mostly from Borneo - also speak Malay on a daily basis and have used the word Allah for decades to refer to God.

In a commentary entitled Why is your Allah not my Allah?, east Malaysian Christian and political commentator Erna Mahyuni said the case merely highlighted the lack of tolerance and growing radical Islamization seeping into the government.

'Most of these [east Malaysian] Christians have spent their whole lives thinking, praying and referring to their God as Allah,' Erna wrote.

'The whole 'Allah' debacle highlights a bigger, more endemic problem in the Malaysian mentality: General ignorance of how 'others' live,' she said.