ICC Note: While Malaysia remains a far more tolerant Islamic society than many in the Middle East, Christians do occasionally face serious discrimination. Recently a debate in the courts over allowing Christians to continue using the Arabic word ‘Allah’ to refer to the Christian God has sparked fear that violence over the issue in 2010 could be reignited. The following blog article details the story of one church that forgave their attackers after being firebombed in 2010 and is now thriving. 
9/1/2013 Malaysia (Christian Post) – News of Christians being given the boot in Muslim countries tends to override stories of remarkable opportunity, overshadowed instead by Muslim religion and politics.
Malaysia, an elongated land mass fingering down from the Indo-China peninsula to the city state of Singapore, is a complex grouping of peoples and religions: Malay 70%, Indian 5%, Indigenous peoples 5%, Chinese 20%. Like Indonesia it is predominantly Muslim, so much so that the government makes popular its assumption that to be ethnic Malay one is automatically Muslim and if Muslim then Malay. Fixed in its statutes are regulations that make it unlawful to evangelize a Malay, and if a Malay chooses to convert, there is a protocol through which they must go to complete their conversion. The risks are so great that churches if holding an event outside of their church building must alert anyone reading that the event is a Christian event.
We were startled by the news on January 2010 that an Assemblies of God church had been burned to the ground. A breaking point in the struggle for Christians to operate with freedom, the catastrophe was turned to opportunity. Pastor Ong Sek Leang led me through the build up to what ended in his church lying in ashes.
Historically there has been conflict with the use of “Allah” by Christians in their Bible translation. The government ruled that “Allah” was only to be used by Muslims and their holy books. Christians objected, saying that they had used that name for years in their Malay translation. It went to court and on December 31, 2009 the high court ruled that it was permissible for Christians to use the name.
Riots broke out following the ruling. A flame fanned by government objection became real. On January 8, 2010 his church was broken into and seven Molotov cocktails thrown in. Before anything could be done the church was destroyed.
It was here disaster became opportunity.
Pastor Leang when asked by a television reporter for his response said, “We forgive.” And followed it up, noting they would not press charges. Within days the leader of the opposition, a Muslim, toured the burned-out site. Following him the prime minister too a Muslim, visited.
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