By: Ethan Cole, Christian Post

Malaysian authorities have seized more than 15,000 Bibles that refer to God as “Allah” in recent months, said church officials Thursday.

About 10,000 Bibles from Indonesia were confiscated by authorities on Sept. 11. The other 5,100 Bibles, also from Indonesia, were seized in March.

In Malaysia, Christian publications cannot use the word Allah to refer to God. The government contends the word “Allah” is exclusively for Islam, but church officials argue that Allah is not exclusive to Islam because it is an Arabic word that existed before the religion.

The confiscated Bibles were translated into Malay, the country’s official language, where the word for God is “Allah.”

“Malay has borrowed from Arabic, just as it has from Sanskrit and Portuguese,” said Rev. Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia. “We have maintained the community has the right to use the word.”

The government has said the use of Allah in Christian publications could confuse Muslims and make Christian ideas more appealing to them.

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