PUTRAJAYA: Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom has urged church leaders to adopt the same approach as a Sabah leader, who urged Christians to drop the claim to use the name “Allah”.

He said this would help maintain peace and security and ease tension over the claim to use “Allah” by the Herald, the Catholic weekly magazine.

“I urge them to be wary and responsible toward peace and security in Malaysia. Other church leaders must have deep understanding of the situation and history (on the use of ‘Allah’) in the country,” he said when commenting on a statement by a Sabah Christian leader urging Herald to drop the claim for the sake of harmony and security.

The Malaysian Justice of the Peace Council president Datuk Clarence Bongkos Malakun said Christians in Malaysia should not follow those in Indonesia on the use of “Allah” but to abide by the federal constitution. Bongkos Malakun is also deputy president of the Sabah Kadazandusun Culture Association.

On the spate of firebomb attacks on churches, Jamil Khir said it should not have happened.

“We still don’t know who were responsible for them but we can’t hurt one another as it is a teaching of Islam,” he said.

Jamil Khir said the inter-faith dialogue would be continued and stepped up so that the people would have better understanding of religions.

Courtesy: TheMalaysianInsider