(Yahoo) - KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia has set up an interfaith committee to help resolve religious disputes, which frequently raise tensions in the Muslim-majority country and have led to attacks on churches and mosques this year, officials said Wednesday.
It is the first time non-Muslims and Muslims have come together in a government-supported forum, said the Rev. Thomas Philips, a Christian community leader and a panel member.
The committee will not have legal powers and can only make recommendations to the government.
Philips said the committee began its work Tuesday with a meeting of about a dozen religious leaders and government representatives.
"It's a good start," he told The Associated Press. "The most important (thing) is whether we can walk the talk. Then there is hope we can move forward."
Non-Muslims, who make up more than a third of the population, have increasingly complained that their rights to practice freely have come under threat under the Muslim-dominated government.
A church was torched and other places of worship were attacked in January after a high court allowed Christians to use the word "Allah" to refer to God in the Malay language, upsetting some Muslims, who argued the word is exclusive to Islam.
Philips said the committee held initial discussions on the Allah controversy and other sensitive issues at its first meeting. He did not elaborate.
The Malaysian Bar Council, representing some 12,000 lawyers, welcomed the "long-awaited" establishment of the committee as "a positive first step to strengthen national unity."
Some 60 percent of Malaysia's 28 million people are Muslim Malay. A third are ethnic Chinese and Indian who practice mostly Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.
