Protests were held against the overturning of the ban on using the 'Allah' word in Christian literature

Four Christian churches in Malaysia have been attacked amid tensions over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims in the country.

Attackers threw a molotov cocktail which failed to ignite at a church in the state of Selangor on Friday afternoon, media reports said.

The incident comes hours after a petrol bomb was thrown at a church in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, as well as attackers trying to set another two ablaze in a nearby suburb.

Police also recieved reports of cars displaying Christian symbols having their windscreens smashed in the suburb of Bangsar.

Hishammuddin Hussein, the home minister, appealed for calm and moved to assure religious groups in the country that “they are safe”.

“I take the events that happened last night very seriously,” he said.

“We want to assure the public that this was not a co-ordinated and well-planned action.”

Ruling suspended

A Malaysian court had last week overturned a government ban on non-Muslims using the word “Allah” in their literature, allowing Roman Catholic newsletter, the Herald, to use the term to refer to God in the Malay language.

The judge has since suspended the implementation of the ruling, after the government appealed and the Roman Catholic church agreed to the suspension.

Muslim groups held protests after prayers on Friday against the court overturning the “Allah” ban, despite a warning from Musa Hassan, the country’s police chief, advising organisers to “let this be handled by the court” and that he “will take action against anyone who acts to jeopardise national security”.

Muslims in Malaysia argue that the “Allah” is exclusive to Islam, and its use by Christians would confuse Muslims.

But Catholic church officials say that for Christian indigenous tribes in East Malaysia, who are the main readers of the Herald’s Malay-language edition, “Allah” is the only word they have known for God for decades.

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting outside a mosque in the suburb of Kampung Baru, said that protests were held within the mosque compound.

“There was a lively crowd, but not a huge one. Some of the protest organisers filed complaints to local officials over the use of the word Allah in Christian literature,” he said.

Government powerless

Najib Abdul Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister, earlier said his government was powerless to stop the planned protests as long as protesters did not leave their mosques.

Marina Mahathir, a board member of the Sisters in Islam organisation and the daughter of the former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, told Al Jazeera that many Malaysians are “deeply disappointed as to how this issue has been manipulated”.

“This issue goes beyond words and debate. I think many do not understand aspects of this religion, which is why there has been a lot of misinformation going around,” she said.

Fire in Friday’s first incident gutted the administrative office on the first floor of the three-storey Metro Tabernacle church, shortly after midnight.

Mohamad Sabtu Osman, the Kuala Lumpur police chief, said a witness saw four people on two motorcycles breaking the glass front of the church and throwing an incendiary object inside before fleeing.

Molotov cocktails were believed to be thrown into the compounds of two other churches in Petaling Jaya, just outside Kuala Lumpur, before dawn on Friday.

The attacks on the Assumption church and the Life Chapel caused minor damage, officials said.

Osman said there were no fatalities in the attacks and police were investigating, but added that it was premature to link the attacks on the churches to protests by Muslim groups over last week’s court ruling.

Heightened security

Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, said many churches had employed extra security guards amid protest threats as a precaution for fear that matters “may just blow up”.

And police say they have stepped up security at churches nationwide following the attacks.

Musa, the police chief, said he had “instructed all patrol cars to patrol all church areas – we are monitoring all churches”.

Najib, the prime minister, condemned the attacks “because they will destroy our country’s harmony”.

“The government will take whatever steps it can to prevent such acts,” he said.

Salahuddin Ayub, a leader from the Islamic opposition party PAS, also condemned the attack, saying Islam does not allow followers to destroy houses of worship belonging to non-Muslims.

“Even during war, those who seek sanctuary in houses of worship cannot be killed or the buildings itself destroyed,” he was quoted as saying by the Malaysian Insider website.

Azmi Sharom, a columnist and law professor at Universiti Malaya, told Al Jazeera that “the unrest is not surprising because of the fact that the government has been pandering to these kinds of people for a long time”.

He said the government allowed some groups to protest when others were banned because the main ruling Umno party - which depends on the Malay/Muslim demographic to remain in power - was “unwilling to do anything which would seem to go against what they think is the Malay/Muslim desire”.

“This is a noisy demographic and it is potentially dangerous for Umno to alienate them, so this will be a real test for Najib’s administration,” he said.

The blasts came as Vejjajiva, left, arrived in Thailand's Muslim majority Yala province

Suspected separatists have detonated two bombs in Thailand’s troubled south, killing at least one person as the country’s prime minister visited the region, officials said.

The first blast wounded three police officers on Thursday in the province of Yala, about 200 metres away from where Abhisit Vejjajiva was later due to appear.

Army officials said the officers were part of the security team for the prime minister’s trip to the region.

At least one person was killed in the second, more powerful explosion in Yala, about 2km away, the army said.

“His body was totally torn apart,” the AFP news agency quoted Major General Wichet Visaijorn, a southern army commander, as saying.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the army blamed separatist fighters.

“The militants staged this violent attack to draw attention,” the southern commander said.

“We are in control of the situation. Small attacks are common during visits to get attention and publicity.”

Troop freeze

Violence in Thailand’s Muslim-majority Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces has claimed more than 3,600 lives since January 2004.

The Thai government has made little progress towards quelling the unrest despite deploying thousands of paramilitary troops – usually residents hired as armed auxiliaries to the regular military – in the area alongside at least 30,000 army troops.

Abhisit met members of the government-backed civilian militias on Thursday in Yala, where he pledged to freeze the number of troops in the region.

“If we want to restore peace that cannot be achieved by deploying enormous forces from outside the region,” he said.

“At least this year the government will freeze forces and by 2012 troops will start to reduce.”

The prime minister also announced a $60m stimulus package for the region to help double the average annual income in the area to nearly $4,000, AFP reported.

He also called on militia members to work with local residents to prevent rights abuses, which he said, separatists could use as a pretext for more attacks.

The group or groups believed to be behind the attacks have made no public pronouncements but are thought to be fighting for an independent Muslim state.

Tensions have simmered since the region, formerly an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate, was annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand in the early 1900s.

The region’s Muslim population have also long complained of discrimination by the central government.