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Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia’s law minister said on Monday that Christians in certain parts of the country could use the word “Allah,” as the government grappled with a row over how non-Muslims should refer to God.

Eleven churches across the predominantly Muslim nation have been attacked in a spate of violence triggered by a December court ruling that lifted a government ban on non-Muslims using “Allah” as a translation for “God.”

About 9 percent of Malaysia’s 28 million people are Christian, including many from indigenous groups in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak who speak the national language Malay.

Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, a cabinet minister in charge of legal affairs, said there were state laws banning non-Muslims from using “Allah” everywhere except in the Federal Territory, including Kuala Lumpur, and Penang.

He said that Christians in Borneo could continue using the disputed word as “it has been the culture there,” although it was off-limits when they came to peninsular Malaysia.

“There is a law against using ‘Allah.’ Christians from Borneo cannot use the word ‘Allah’ when they come to the peninsula,” he told reporters. “There is a law against the use of the word ‘Allah’ except in Penang and in the Federal Territory.”

The Federal Territory is a collective of three regions — the capital Kuala Lumpur, the administrative capital Putrajaya and the offshore financial center of Labuan.

Nazri said Christians elsewhere should use the Malay word “Tuhan,” which is the generic translation for a deity, and reiterated the view that the use of “Allah” could confuse Muslims and lead them to illegal conversions.



Agence France-Presse