KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — The Vatican expressed support today for the right of Christian Malaysians to use “Allah” to call their god, but said that the ongoing row with Muslims here was a dispute between the local Catholic Church and the government.

In his first media interview here, the Vatican’s first envoy to Malaysia, Archbishop Joseph Marino (picture), observed that the “Allah” storm that has been raging here for the past five years was unique to this Southeast Asian nation due to the widespread use of the Malay language, the lingua franca of Malaysia’s Bumiputera Christians.

He indicated that the local churches have presented a “logical and acceptable” argument to counter the allegations by some hardline Muslims here that “Allah”, a word of Middle Eastern origin, was exclusive to Islam.

“But the document that they produce seems to be very well-presented in terms of explaining why Christians use this word,” the apostolic nuncio said, referring to the Christian Federation of Malaysia’s (CFM) fact sheet on the “Allah” released a couple of months ago.

But Marino carefully pointed out that the ongoing appeal by the Home Ministry to reverse a 2009 High Court judgment in favour of the Catholic Church was an “internal matter” when asked to comment further on the dispute.

On Monday, Malaysia’s Catholic Church filed an application to strike out the Home Ministry’s appeal.

The High Court had stirred waves when in ruled in 2009 that the “Allah” word was not the exclusive right of Muslims, and the Catholic Church’s newspaper, Herald, could publish it in its Bahasa Malaysia section, which caters to its Bumiputera congregation.

The “Allah” row erupted in 2008 when the Home Ministry threatened to revoke the Herald’s newspaper permit, prompting the Catholic Church to sue the government for violating its constitutional rights.

A 2010 census puts Christians as Malaysia’s third-largest religious group at 2.6 million people, with slightly over one million of them being Catholics.

About 64 per cent of the Christians here are Bumiputeras and Malay-speaking.

Marino also appeared to be on the ball when he was asked to weigh in on other religious concerns affecting Malaysia’s minorities, such as the recent uproar over a conversion law of children to Islam by only one parent.

He referred to the statement by the country’s leading non-Muslim interfaith group, and described the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism’s (MCCBCHST) stand as being “logical and respectful”.

“Malaysia is a very cultured country and highly educated people here so let’s hope common sense will prevail in all these issues,” Marino said in the interview at the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

The MCCBCHST had previously issued a statement objecting to a clause allowing the unilateral conversion of minors to Islam.

The Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013, which contained the clause, was subsequently withdrawn by the government after much uproar.

Marino said there were two tendencies in the world, one that excludes religion from society, while the other imposes religion in a unilateral manner on society.

The archbishop said that conversion in religion, which he noted is a hotly debated issue, is a “human right” that has to be respected.

“If we are going to respect human dignity, we have to respect the conscience of the person in seeking God. I have to respect it if you seek God in one way and I hope you respect the way I seek God.

“It is a basic fundamental human right — the search for God — and we have to respect that. We have to give the means by which people can do it.

“So therefore society must give space to all different religions in a pluralistic society so that people can follow it,” he said.

But he carefully refrained from making any specific reference to Malaysia, where strict rules apply to Muslims who want to leave the faith.

Marino said dialogue was necessary to promote interfaith harmony.

The 60-year-old American had previously served as the Holy See’s envoy in Muslim-majority Bangladesh for five years.

He was appointed the Vatican’s Apostolic Nuncio or ambassador to Malaysia this January.

This came as Malaysia and the Vatican established diplomatic ties following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s meeting with the pope in 2011.