Adherents of Christianity represent a majority (50.1%) of the population in Sarawak, which is Malaysia's largest state by land area.

Presbyterianism grew through Chinese churches in Johore and expatriate congregations in Penang, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur.

[7] Anglicanism and Catholicism came to North Borneo in 1882 after the establishment of British North Borneo,[8] albeit there were earlier attempts such as the Catholic mission led by a Spanish mariner turned priest, Carlos Cuarteroni in 1857 in Labuan, with stations established in Brunei and Looc Porin (now Kota Kinabalu), however with lesser success.

Although there are many challenges through changing political and economic circumstances, like Malaysia itself, the churches are beginning to see that they have a contribution to make on a larger stage.

Most of the time, new churches are started in a clandestine manner as ordinary businesses in shops, especially in major cities like Kuala Lumpur.

The freedom to practice and propagate religion is guaranteed under the Article 11 of the Constitution of Malaysia and this is generally respected.

The Constitution however allows for the restriction of the propagation of religions other than Islam to the Muslim community and the ambiguity of these provisions has resulted in some problems.

[17] According to the latest population census released by the Malaysian Statistics Department, there are none, according to Ustaz Ridhuan Tee, there are 135 and according to Tan Sri Dr Harussani Zakaria, there are 260,000.

There are, however, cases in which a Muslim will adopt the Christian faith without declaring his/her apostasy (in the eyes of Islamic authorities) openly.

[21] Due to the linguistic and cultural similarities of both Malaysia and Indonesia, a lot of early language and literature work was shared by the two territories and the legacy remains today.

However, the Prime Minister clarified in April 2005 that there was no ban on Bibles translated into Malay, although they are required to be stamped with a disclaimer "Not for Muslims".

An initial run of two-months was extended, making it appear doubtful that only Christians viewed the film.

[citation needed] The Daughters of St. Paul is a Christian film advertiser that makes investments in Malaysia.

Their work in advertising includes The Passion of the Christ and Maria Goretti, both films are only available on DVD in Malaysia, and are most popular in Sabah and Sarawak.

The Daughters of St. Paul has locations in Malaysia in Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, and Kuching.

[citation needed] Actual modes of worship such as the liturgy used and the sermons are not actively censored or controlled by the government.

In 2004 the government organised a national-level Christmas celebration but allegedly imposed an unofficial ban on all Christian religious symbols and hymns that specifically mention Jesus Christ.

[27] The event was jointly organised by the Arts, Culture and Heritage ministry, the government of the state of Selangor and the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM).

Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Dr Rais Yatim later denied that any such ban had been "issued officially or unofficially".

Lee Min Choon, legal adviser to the CFM and the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship issued a statement which said "It means that churches can celebrate Christmas as they have been doing all along.

On the contrary, Good Friday is probably not a public holiday because, as a whole in the federation, Christians constitutes 9.2% of the population according to the 2010 Census.

The other two significant religious minorities in Malaysia, Buddhists and Hindus, also receive just one federal public holiday each - Wesak Day and Deepavali respectively.

A number of explanations have been given for doing so including a desire to show patriotism, promoting religious harmony, and celebrating freedom of religion.

Since 2000 the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, with 2,800 member churches, has organised these fasts and they are ongoing event as of 2010.

[32] In 2023, the country was ranked as the 43rd worst country in the world to be a Christian, but it was recorded only in West Malaysia (due to political intervene on religion) meanwhile in East Malaysia still not the worst to be a Christian[33] (not included in rank) because of diversity and harmony tradition protected by both the Sabah and Sarawak governments that also written in Keningau Oath Stone.