'Allah' rings out in Malaysian churches

Malaysian churches defiantly continue to use the word "Allah" to refer to the Christian God in Sunday services despite the leader of the Muslim-majority country saying they must obey rules against it.

Malay-speaking Christians pray and sing hymns using the Arabic word, a practice they have observed for hundreds of years but which has sparked an increasingly tense row.

"(The Malay-language Bible) contains the word 'Allah'," said a pastor at a church near the capital Kuala Lumpur.

"When we preach we have to read the text. It's a really difficult situation," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the passions surrounding the issue.

Under pressure from Muslim conservatives, Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Friday that Malaysian Christians must heed rules forbidding them from using the word.

Islamist ethnic Malays say the word is exclusive to Islam and must not be used by the country's non-Muslim minorities.

Muslim-ethnic Malays make up more than 60 per cent of the diverse country's 28 million people. It has about 2.6 million Christians.

Church leaders have vowed not to back down.

"The Christians in Malaysia have no choice but to use the Malay-language bibles. To say they cannot use these bibles, it means saying 'you are not allowed to worship in the language that you want'," said Reverend Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia.

The government in 2007 ordered a Malaysian Catholic weekly newspaper to cease use of the word, arguing that printing it in Christian literature could entice Muslims to convert, which is illegal for Muslims in Malaysia.

The newspaper has launched a long-running court challenge, angering Muslim conservatives.

"Why insist? They have an option. They don't really have to use 'Allah' to worship," said Yusri Mohamad, chairman of Muslim rights group Pembela.

Non-Muslims complain of what they see as growing intolerance by increasingly influential Islamic Malay conservatives.

The Malaysian Catholic church argues that "Allah" has been used by Christians in the country for hundreds of years and that the word predates the founding of Islam.