British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the Malaysian government seized?what? Guns? No. Drugs then? Guess again. Pornography? Wrong.

Kuala Lumpur confiscated, believe it or not, 10,000 Bibles. In March, another 5,100 Bibles, imported from Indonesia, were impounded, the Associated Press reports.

?[The Bibles] contained the word Allah to refer to God,? BBC reported. ?The government, which is dominated by Muslim Malays, claims that the word Allah is Islamic. And its use in Bibles could upset Muslims.?

?Church officials say that the word Allah originated in Arabic,? BBC pointed out. ?Malays have used it for centuries to refer generally to God. And Arabic-speaking Christians used it before Islam was founded.?

No one blinks when a boiler-plate dictatorship, like North Korea, bans books. But a 21st century Asean member like Malaysia?

Penalties for swapping the Lord?s name can be three years in the slammer. Or a fine of up to $5,200. Or both.

Clamping a patent on the Divinity?s name can lead to farce. Kuala Lumpur earlier banned the Bup Kudus. This is the Bible used by Ibans, largest of Sarawak?s 27 indigenous groups. It calls God ?Allah Taala??provoking suppression. There?s no comparable term in Iban, Christians protested. KL grudgingly scrapped the ban?but only for Ibans.

More than half (60.4 percent) of Malaysians are Muslims. One in five is Buddhist. Christians make up 9.1 percent, while Hindus account for 3 percent. The rest practice traditional Chinese religions.

Malaysia is a Muslim state. Its constitution recognizes the right to freedom of worship. The same constitution requires all Malays be Muslim. Foreigners who marry Muslims must convert.

Constitutional rights would become ?meaningless if Malaysian citizens were denied Bibles which used their own language,? declared Christian Federation of Malaysia chair on Bishop Ng Moon Hing. The Catholic Church challenged in court the Bible seizures, Vatican Radio reported.

But what about a new book fair edition that pastes the Hebrew word ?Elohim? over ?Allah?? asked Agence France Presse. ?Some groups try to substitute God with a foreign name,? snapped Catholic Herald editor Fr. Lawrence Andrew.

All major faiths revere the Divine, Barbara Greene and Victor Gollancz note in their book ?God Of A Hundred Names.? That respect is reflected in how they address the Creator. All concur it is not to be used lightly.

?His names are many./ No man knoweth the number thereof,? says an Egyptian prayer collected in the book. On receiving favors, Sikhs pray: ?May it not be that on beholding these things/ I may forget Thee and remember not Thy name.? And in 1388, Hafiz, the Persian poet, wrote: ?Although I am far from Thee, may no one else be far from Thee.?

Across the Johore causeway is Singapore (Population: 4.6 million). Religious intolerance can trigger strife in multi-racial and multi-religious societies, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong cautioned in a National Day address. ?Public debate cannot be on whose religion is right and whose is wrong. It has to be on secular, rational considerations of public interest?Otherwise, whatever the rules, there will be no end?to friction.?

St. Joseph?s Institution, run by Christian Brothers, is one of Singapore?s outstanding schools. SJI is open to non-Catholics. The Josephian of the Year in 2003 was a Malay Muslim: Salman Mohamed Khair.

?Religion never became an issue,? Lee said. ?Malay students in SJI often attend Friday prayers at Baalwie Mosque wearing their school uniforms. SJI thinks it?s fine. The mosque thinks it?s fine. The students think it?s fine. And I think it?s fine too.?

But is stacking a secular state against a theocracy sporting a libertarian façade the classic mismatch: comparing apples with oranges?

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. Its population now exceeds 241.2 million. Out of every 100 Indonesians, 87 are Muslims. Protestants and Catholics make up 8.7 percent and Hindus 1.8 percent. Buddhism and Confucianism are recognized.

?The term ?Allah? has been used in Indonesia and the Middle East by Christians without prosecution or controversy,? Malaysian opposition lawmaker Tony Pua notes. The controversial Malay Bible, in fact, is copied substantially from the Indonesian Bible. Both use ?Allah? for God.?

?The beginning of wisdom is to call all things by their right names,? a Chinese proverb teaches. This is true of love, bibliographies or even postal addresses.

?That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet,? Juliet frets. Others bicker over living in gated enclave or squatter colonies, ?We go to gain a patch of ground/ That hath no profit in it but the name,? Hamlet groused. And Adam, Genesis tells us, named all creatures.

But we?re drilled to keep God at a respectful distance. Most of us tiptoe before the Creator with awe, Irish professor Eammon Bredin points out in his book, ?Disturbing the Peace.? We grope for honorifics.

Hindi tayo nag-iisa. The Roman stoic Seneca (4 B.C.- 65 A.D.) addressed the Lord as ?framer and former of the universe; governor, disposer from whom all things spring?.?

Muslims have 95 names other than Allah. Jews would not address God directly. And many where scandalized when Jesus counseled, ?Say our Father??

(E-mail: juanlmercado@gmail.com)