CHRISTIANS FEARFUL AS CHURCH ATTACKS RISE

UPROAR GROWS OVER USE OF WORD ‘ALLAH’
IN MALAYSIA, CHURCHES AND SCHOOL ATTACKED

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Would-be arsonists in mostly Muslim Malaysia struck at a convent school and a sixth church on Sunday while church and government leaders called for calm in a row over Christians' use of the word "Allah" to refer to God. An uproar among Muslims in Malaysia over the use of the word Allah by Christians spread over the weekend with the firebombing and vandalizing of several churches, increasing tensions at a time of political turbulence. Three more churches and a Catholic school were attacked in Malaysia Sunday, this followed the firebombing of another churches on Friday and Saturday. The attacks have shaken a country where many Muslims are angry over a Dec. 31 court ruling that overturned a government ban on the use of the word Allah to denote the Christian God. Though that usage is common in many countries, where Arabic- and Malay-language Bibles describe Jesus as the “son of Allah,” many Muslims here insist that the word belongs exclusively to them and say that its use by other faiths could confuse Muslim worshipers. The row, over a court ruling that allowed a Catholic newspaper to use "Allah" in its Malay-language editions, had prompted Muslims to protest at mosques and sparked arson attacks on a string of churches that saw a Pentecostalist church gutted, because "Christians should not call their god by the name they use".

The attacks now appear to have spread to other Malaysian states; several broken bottles and paint thinners were found at the Saint Louis church next to the convent and one of the country's oldest Anglican churches, All Saints, in Taiping, in northern Perak state. Nearby, a bottle of kerosene was found inside another church Sunday in what is believed to be a failed attack. In southern Malacca state, black paint was splashed on the outside of a Baptist church. The attacks threaten Prime Minister Najib Razak's plan to win back non-Muslim support before elections due by 2013 and may prevent investors from returning to Malaysia for foreign investment.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The Christians say, “God is great.” The Muslims also say that “Allah-u-akbar.” That is also the same meaning. The Vedic literature also says, “param brahma”. Brahman means “the greatest”. ... So the greatness understanding of Krishna or the Absolute Truth is accepted everywhere in civilized human society. But how God is great, that you can find in the Vedic literature. ... If you want to know in detail how His activities of greatness are going on … then you read Bhagavad-gita. ... If you understand these factors of the greatness of God perfectly well, then you become fit for being transferred to the spiritual world. That is called “daivī sampad vimoksāya”. If you become divine ... This is cultivation. This is education. This is not sentiment.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Class on Bhagavad-gita 16.6 - Hawaii, February 2, 1975
The Complete Works - Lectures & Classes 750202BG.HAW