Archbishop Bolly Lapok of Kuching has warned Islamist extremists that Christians would not be silent in the face of demands that they be forbidden to use the word Allah.

The Primate of the Church of the Province of Southeast Asia, the Most Rev. Bolly Lapok, has warned Islamist extremists that Christians would not be silent in the face of demands that they be forbidden to use the word Allah. “Turning the other cheek to the provocateurs and extremists in political Islam that are relentlessly stoking the fire of hatred and bigotry is tantamount to sending a wrong message to them”, he said on 29 March 2014. Christians had lived in peace with Muslims in Southeast Asia, but in recent years Islamist extremists had hijacked the faith to further political ends. “The Bible reminds us that there is a time for war, and a time for peace. It seems like a paradox that we are called to be peacemakers,” he wrote,”yet at the same time we are also to brace ourselves for war.” Under pressure from Islamist extremists, Malaysia’s government has sought to ban the use of the word Allah in Christian newspapers, books and prayers. Last year the Court of Appeals held Christians had no right to use the word – a ruling the Archbishop said was a “travesty of our constitutional right for the church to manage its own affairs, including translation of our Holy Scriptures into Bahasa Malaysia and our native