Malaysia: Isma Blames ‘Ungrateful Infidels’ For Religious Tensions

 (malysiadigest.com) KUALA LUMPUR: Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) has blamed “ungrateful infidels” for spiralling religious tensions in the country.

Isma said that those who do not believe in “Allah” have started to undermine the position of Islam as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

“Infidels who do not have faith and do not believe in the fact of Allah the creator, will not know how to be grateful. That is the cause of tensions happening in this country,” Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman said on the group’s website.

A dispute over use of the word “Allah” has led to tensions between the country’s Muslims and Christians .

In October last year, Malaysia’s second highest court ruled that a Catholic newspaper could not use the word “Allah” to refer to God, overturning a lower court decision in 2009.

The Christian paper is looking to appeal the latest decision and preliminary hearings at Malaysia’s apex court start on March 5.

Selangor state religious authorities confiscated bibles containing the word ‘Allah’ in January this year, using a state enactment dated 1988 which bans non-Muslims from using 35 Arabic words.

The dispute is hurting Malaysia’s image as a moderate Islamic country.

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