[Straits Times] MALAYSIAN Christians turned up to Sunday services in their thousands, presenting a united front of defiance in the face of a series of church firebombings that has heightened ethnic tensions.Four churches have been targeted since Friday amid an escalating row over the use of the word 'Allah' as a translation for the Christian God by non-Muslims in the Muslim-majority nation.
Islamic groups have staged protests in response to a court ruling last week giving a Catholic newspaper the right to use the word following a long-running dispute with the government over the issue.
'I think that people's faith is greater than what's happening around so they continue to go to church and pray for themselves as well as for the nation,' Hermen Shastri, the Council of Churches secretary-general told AFP. 'But of course we are not blind to potential threat so churches have taken measures to increase security around their compounds and trusting the police and other enforcement agencies to keep a lookout for any suspicious individuals.'
About 1,000 worshippers at the Catholic Church of Assumption in Kuala Lumpur, one of the four targeted, were briefed by parish priest Phillips Muthu on the incident and told to be patient.
'I told them we don't want to blame any people, any quarter, any religion. We are peaceful and we are here to offer our prayer for the nation,' he told reporters at the church, where the fire damaged part of the grounds. 'Of course we are afraid after the incident but life has to go on.'