KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 — The arson attack on a church in Penang and the discovery of provocative banners near several churches in the state were attempts to bait a fiery response amid the current tinderbox nature of religious relations in Malaysia, the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) said today.
Urging Christians and non-Muslims not to be drawn into reacting or to be alarmed over the incidents, the group that represents nearly all churches in Malaysia said that doing otherwise would be playing into the hands of those trying to fan already smouldering communal relations.
“These acts of provocation to cause chaos and ethnic enmity are aimed at the self-interest gains of those who have organised it.
“Should these attacks be politically-motivated and calculated to try to ignite an escalation in inter-racial and inter-religious tensions, then all the more reason that we do well to be wise and measured in our response,” the CFM said in a statement today.
This morning, The Church of the Assumption in Lebuh Farquhar, Penang was targeted with two Molotov cocktails, believed to be in response to the appearance of banners proclaiming, “Jesus is the son of Allah”, near the main building of the church.
One of the bottles exploded on impact but the other failed to ignite after landing on grass in the church compound.
The banner was found outside the premises of the church and outside four other churches in the state. All five churches denied responsibility for the banners.
Temperatures have risen of late over the so-called “Allah” row that remains unresolved four years after it shocked the nation and led to the worst religious strife in the country’s history.
Tensions were particularly heightened in Penang, where protesters at an Umno-organised rally earlier this month were reported to have held up banners threatening a recurrence of the deadly May 13,1969 racial riots over an alleged slight by an opposition lawmaker against the prime minister.
The ongoing legal dispute between the government and the Catholic Church on the latter’s right to print the word “Allah” in its weekly Herald lies pending at the Federal Court, where a hearing for the Catholic Church’s leave for appeal is fixed on March 5.
Religious friction increased when shortly after the October court verdict, the Selangor Sultan issued a decree last November prohibiting non-Muslims from referring to God as “Allah”, citing a 1988 state law that bans such usage.
The 2010 High Court decision had also outraged Muslims in Malaysia who believe the Arabic word to be exclusive to Islam here, and led to arson attacks and vandalism against churches and other house of worship throughout the country.
Christians make up close to 10 per cent of the Malaysian population, or 2.6 million. Almost two-thirds of them are Bumiputera and are largely based in Sabah and Sarawak, where they routinely use Bahasa Malaysia and indigenous languages in their religious practices, including describing God as “Allah” in their prayers and holy book.
