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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 000011 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL MY
SUBJECT: OVERNIGHT ATTACKS ON THREE CHURCHES RAISE CONCERNS 
AS "ALLAH" CONTROVERSY CONTINUES 
 
REF: KUALA LUMPUR 3 
 
SUMMARY AND COMMENT 
-------------------- 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: A Protestant church was substantially 
burned by Molotov cocktails, and another Protestant and one 
Catholic church attacked without damages near Kuala Lumpur in 
the early morning hours of January 8, amidst heated debate 
about whether the Catholic Herald should be able to continue 
using the word "Allah" for God in its Malay-language edition 
(reftel).  The GOM reacted quickly:  Prime Minister Najib 
Razak called the attacks irresponsible and said all measures 
would be taken to prevent a recurrence.  Police were 
mobilized. United Malays National Organization (UMNO) Youth 
Chief Khairy Jamaluddin told a crowd gathered at one of the 
scenes that the act was "despicable."  The 
government-influenced media were slow to report the 
incidents, but by midday on January 8 footage of the attacked 
sites was being shown on television.  Meanwhile, Muslim 
groups demonstrated at two mosques in Kuala Lumpur and one in 
Shah Alam, however, the turnouts were small and the crowds 
dispersed quickly. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Comment:  The GOM's firm reaction to the attacks was 
appropriate.  Nevertheless, the overnight violence makes it 
more plausible that the politically influenced Appeals Court 
will conclude that non-Muslims must avoid using the word 
"Allah" on national security grounds.  Such a decision would 
leave Malay-speaking Christians, especially in Sarawak and 
Sabah, who have used "Allah" for centuries, unsatisfied. 
Although none of the overnight violence was directed at 
foreigners, in the wake of the demonstrations and increased 
tensions, Post convened an EAC and issued a general warden 
message and security notice. End Summary and Comment. 
 
THE ATTACKS 
----------- 
¶3. (SBU) An Assembly of God church called the Metro 
Tabernacle Church in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur was partially 
burned down after it was firebombed by several individuals on 
motorcycles, seen by witnesses, at approximately 1230 AM on 
January 8. A second attack was reported to have occurred when 
explosives were thrown into the Catholic Assumption Church in 
Petaling Jaya, another suburb of Kuala Lumpur at about 4 
a.m., but did not explode, according to the editor of the 
Catholic Herald, Father Lawrence Andrew.  A lay leader of the 
Life Tabernacle Church in Petaling Jaya reported a third 
attack, saying that an unexploded Molotov cocktail was found 
on the porch of the church at approximately 8:30 AM on the 
morning of January 8.  Wire services Reuters and AP reported 
the attacks right away, but Malaysia's government-influenced 
media only began reporting on the incidents several hours 
into the morning, amidst rumors that other attacks had 
occurred. 
 
GOM REACTION 
------------ 
¶4. (SBU) The GOM reacted seriously.  Prime Minister Najib 
Razak -- who had raised eyebrows on January 7 when he said 
that the government could not prevent protest demonstrations 
against the "Allah" court decision as long as protestors 
gathered inside mosques -- called the overnight attacks 
"irresponsible," said that he condemned the attacks "because 
they will destroy our country's harmony," and said that he 
had ordered the police to protect churches nationwide. 
Reacting to a journalist's suggestion that UMNO's actions in 
the wake of the High Court decision led to these attacks, 
Najib responded, "Don't point the finger at UMNO or anybody. 
We have always been very responsible."  Home Minister 
Hishamuddin Hussein held a press conference on January 8 
saying that police were out in force to monitor the 
situation, that protests were being discouraged, and that the 
government would not hesitate to invoke the Internal Security 
Act (which allows detention without trial) against those 
stirring up trouble. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Poloffs visited the Assembly of God and Catholic 
Assumption churches on the morning of January 8. The Assembly 
of God Church is located in a three-story corner stripmall 
opposite a small mosque in the low to middle-class, 
predominately Malay suburb of Kuala Lumpur called Desa 
Melawati. Approximately 80 people, including press, police, 
and parishioners gathered outside the structure.  The damage 
to the building was significant and first floor was 
completely gutted by the fire.  Poloffs observed United 
Malays National Organization (UMNO) Youth Chief Khairy 
Jamaluddin (former PM Abdullah Badawi's son-in-law) visit the 
site where he said, "This is a despicable act.  This is not 
the Malaysia I know." Marina Mahathir, daughter of the former 
 
KUALA LUMP 00000011  002 OF 002 
 
 
Prime Minister, also visited the Assembly of God Church and 
said, "This is not what Islam is about.  The leadership must 
play its role and come out and tell the people not to condemn 
houses of worship."  Outside the Catholic Assumption Church 
in Petaling Jaya there were approximately 50 people ) 
primarily press and a police forensic team.  Poloffs did not 
enter the church area but Petaling Jaya City Council member 
Cynthia Gabriel told Poloffs that a petro-bomb had been 
thrown at the church but did not explode.  She described the 
damage to the Catholic Assumption Church as "very minimal." 
She added that there was "some damage" to the Life Tabernacle 
Church in Petaling Jaya. 
 
PUBLIC AND CIVIL SOCIETY REACTION 
--------------------------------- 
¶6. (SBU) The church attacks add concern to what was already a 
heated situation.  Such attacks are almost unprecedented in 
Malaysia and were immediately roundly condemned as crossing 
the line.  Even so, the controversy over non-Muslims' use of 
"Allah" continues.  Since the High Court ruled on December 31 
that the GOM's 2007 ban on the Catholic Herald's use of the 
word "Allah" in its Malay-language edition was 
unconstitutional, various Islamic groups have protested, 
saying that non-Muslim use of "Allah" is improper and can 
confuse Muslims, even though Malay-speaking Christians, not 
to mention Christians in the Middle East and Indonesia, have 
used "Allah" without any problem for centuries (reftel). 
 
¶7. (SBU) On January 7, Director General of the Institute of 
Islamic Understanding, Nik Mustapha, took the issue into 
theological territory when he told Polcouns that Malaysian 
Muslims were concerned that Christian use of "Allah" would 
imply that Muslims had to accept the idea that God was Jesus' 
father and the existence of the Holy Trinity. He granted that 
even with Islam there was disagreement about the issue.  He 
discounted the idea that the debate was in fact political, 
part of an ongoing effort by UMNO and conservative Muslim 
groups to strengthen their Islamic credentials, though many 
observers see the Malaysian controversy that way.  Mustapha 
said his organization, chaired by former Prime Minister and 
Islamic scholar Abdullah Badawi, would host a meeting of 
Islamic groups on January 21 to discuss the "Allah" issue and 
would, at some point, host an interfaith dialogue on the 
subject.  The latter would be almost unprecedented, since the 
GOM has discouraged previous efforts to hold interfaith 
dialogues or establish an interfaith council. 
 
PROTESTS 
-------- 
¶8. (SBU) In the days after the High Court's ruling, Malay 
groups called for protests at mosques to follow afternoon 
prayers.  On January 8, three simultaneous demonstrations 
were held at the end of afternoon prayers at Masjid Negara 
(National Mosque) and Kampung Baru Mosque in Kuala Lumpur and 
one in Shah Alam, the capitol of Selangor state.  However, 
these protests were relatively small (several hundred people) 
and short-lived (most people dispersing within 10 minutes). 
The protests portrayed the recent set of events as an attack 
on Islam rather than a limitation on the rights of other 
religions to freely practice in Malaysia.  (Comment: Kampung 
Baru, where the May 1969 ethnic riots began, is an 
exclusively Malay suburb of Kuala Lumpur where land ownership 
is restricted to ethnic Malays.  That the turnout at the 
protest there was light suggests that this issue is not as 
significant to individual Malays as it is to Malay interest 
groups and politicians.  End Comment.)  Coincidentally, 
another protest was held in Kuala Lumpur that coincided with 
the ending of afternoon prayers. A group of approximately 300 
protestors armed with megaphones and banners marched to the 
Egyptian Embassy to protest the decision of the Egyptian 
government to bar 59 convoy vehicles from leaving Egypt for 
Gaza.  Police lined the street and a riot squad waited at the 
Egyptian Embassy but the march was allowed to proceed without 
incident. 
 
EMERGENCY ACTION COMMITTEE 
-------------------------- 
¶9. (SBU) The Embassy held an Emergency Action Committee 
meeting about the church attacks and related demonstrations, 
agreeing to issue a Warden Notice urging Amcits in Malaysia 
to avoid demonstrations and take precautions (septel). 
KEITH