Peaceful Muslims?

A piece of news brings up a puzzling issue for me I've mentioned before on my blog. Many times I hear that "Islam is a religion of peace," but so often I read about violence done by the hands of Muslims.

Consider this news from Malaysia: "four churches were firebombed early Friday, escalating a dispute over whether Christians here can use the word 'Allah' as their translation for 'God'."

James Hookway reports this in his Wall Street Journal article "Churches Attacked as Tensions Rise in Malaysia."

"Many Malaysian Muslims say the term Allah is exclusive to their faith."

"'For non-Muslims to use this word is an unnecessary provocation,' said Faisal Aziz, president of the National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students."

According to the article, Malaysia actually had to resort to a court decision to allow Catholics to use the term 'Allah' for the word God. Certainly disagreement is permitted in this world, but it is generally regarded as not legitimate to resort to violence as a means of persuading someone, or a group of people, to your point of view. And since we hear so much that "Islam is a religion of peace," I would think that Muslims especially would eschew violence.

Something else puzzles me, too. I usually hear from Muslims that Allah and God are the same; that there's no difference between them. Two words for the same concept. The God of Abraham is the same for Jews, Christians and Muslims. I actually disagree with this, and it seems that I am in agreement with Malaysian Muslims on this point - just not on the right to use violence to disagree.