Seizure of 15,000 Bibles in Malaysia

FRESNO, Calif., November 7 (CDN) — Malaysian port and customs authorities have seized at least 15,000 Bibles in recent months because the word “Allah” for God appears in them.

Some 10,000 of the Bahasa Malaysia-language Bibles, which were printed in Indonesia, are in Kuching, capital of Sarawak in East Malaysia, and another 5,000 copies are in Kelang near Kuala Lumpur.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) on Wednesday (Nov. 4) called for the immediate release of the confiscated Bibles. At the same time, CFM Executive Secretary Tan Kong Beng told Compass that the federation is striving for amicable relations with government authorities.

Malaysia Set to Rule on Use of ‘Allah’ among Non-Muslims

MUMBAI, India, July 6 (CDN) — With the Kuala Lumpur High Court in Malaysia scheduled to determine the legality of the word “Allah” in non-Muslim literature tomorrow, what is at stake goes beyond the sanctioned name for God among non-Muslims in the majority-Muslim nation.

Such a limit on free speech in Malaysia is especially biting for Muslim converts to Christianity; already the Malaysian government does not recognize their conversions and marriages and still considers their offspring to be legally Muslim. With non-Muslims increasingly feeling the sting of discrimination and Muslim elites feeling a need to assert a national Islamic identity, the skirmish over “Allah” is clearly part of a greater cultural war.

FPI Disrupts Batak Christians’ Mass

August 01, 2010, Arientha Primanita & Zaky Pawas

Bekasi. At least 300 Islamic hard-liners protested against a Christian prayer meeting in Bekasi on Sunday, in the latest show of simmering religious tensions in the area.

Police said hundreds of members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) from Pondok Timur Indah were praying in a field in Ciketing Asem on Sunday morning, when demonstrators appeared and demanded the worshipers leave.

Bekasi Police chief Sr. Comr. Imam Sugiyanto said 300 police officers were sent to secure the area. Police also demanded that the protesters disperse.

Christians in Bekasi forced to celebrate in the open air under Police Protection

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – The members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan or HKBP) celebrated Mass last Sunday in an open field in Ciketing, a suburb of Bekasi (West Java), under the protection of hundreds of police agents.

The HKBP community has been the target of Islamic extremists for years. Muslims have shut down their church twice and prevented them from holding services in private locations. This month, they have begun to disrupt open-air Sunday services with threats and insults. In the first six months of the year, there were 28 anti-Christian attacks across Indonesia, seven in the city of Bekasi alone.

Rev Luspida Simanjuntak, who heads the HKBP community, said she would never give in to continuous violence. “I will never give up seeking justice,” she told AsiaNews. “I shall fight for the most fundamental of human rights, the right to worship God and profess our faith.”

Record number of anti-Christian attacks in 2010

» 07/27/2010 12:35--Indonesia

Between January and July, 28 incidents were recorded compared to 18 for the whole of 2009 and 17 for 2008. Bekasi holds the record. “It seems that people and the government do not realise that the right to worship, as stipulated in the Constitution, comes with the right to have a house of worship,” says the deputy chairman of the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy.

Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The first seven months of 2010 were marked by a record number of anti-Christian attacks, the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy said in a report released on Monday. Altogether, 28 attacks on religious freedom were recorded between January and July, compared with 18 incidents in all of 2009 and 17 in 2008.
Bekasi saw the highest number of incidents with seven, followed by Greater Jakarta with six.