More Muslim Tolerance
Archbishop Joseph Marino gently weighed into a fire-hot court case in Muslim-majority Malaysia over whether non-Muslims should be able to use the word “Allah.” The local Catholic Church’s newspaper had used the word “Allah” — the word Muslims use for God — leading to a case that it won at a mid-level court in a ruling that is under appeal.
In an interview Thursday with a small group of reporters, including from The Wall Street Journal, the archbishop said he supported the arguments in a fact sheet put out by the Christian Federation of Malaysia on why Christians should be allowed to use “Allah.”
Archbishop Marino is no stranger to living in a Muslim majority country. Prior to his posting here, he was the Holy See’s envoy to Bangladesh for five years.
“The first thing I came to learn was the beauty of Islam, and it is indeed a religion of peace and harmony,” he said. “Its spiritual components of seeking God are profound. That was the joy that I have, if I may say, with my deep contact with Islam in a country that is predominantly Muslim.”
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