Friday, January 08, 2010

Church arson

Malaysia has finally made it to the international news and joined the many nations facing problems with religious extremist. Not that we didn't have them before but now they seem to have become bolder. A number of churches were set on fire using kerosine bombs. The Prime Minister has condemned the attack.

I have to say that it is my presumption that the churches were burnt by the Muslim extremist as we have yet to hear from the police regarding the identity of the culprits. This incident will no doubt be linked to the usage of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims which is a big issue with Malaysian Muslims. It seems it might confuse the Muslims and cause them to stray if Christians use that word to refer to God. This case went to court and the outcome was in the favour of the Christians.

Now with the arson incident, it looks like court decisions have no value. The government has to come out strongly against this sort of bullying to reassure the people that there is still freedom of worship in this 'boleh land' and that we need to respect the law and the constitution of the country. Otherwise all is lost.