Churches attacked in Perak, Malacca and S'wak

More churches have come under attack in Sarawak, Perak and Malacca, revealed the authorities.

Since Friday, at least seven churches have been attacked with petrol bombs.

In Taiping, Molotov cocktails were hurled at two churches and the guard post of a school, SM Convent.

Perak police chief Zulkifli Abdullah said there was no damage to the All Saints Church, the oldest Anglican church in the country (left), while the school's guard post suffered only minor damage.

"There were black marks on the wall (at All Saints). We believed there was a small fire earlier but there was no damage as the wall was intact," Zulkifli told AFP.

According to Bernama, he said the church keeper realised the incident at 7.30am and reported the matter to the police.

Police, who went to the scene, found two black spots on the church wall and two broken bottles believed to have been used in the incident, he said when contacted.

On the incident at SM Convent (right), he said, the school's security guard realised the incident at about 3.30am.

He added that police believed the incidents were perpetrated by opportunist individuals out to take advantage of the current issue.

He said police had stepped up the monitoring of houses of worship in the state.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has appealed for calm.

"The public need not worry, and they must not be influenced by reports on the Internet or (rumours circulating) through SMS," he added.

Black paint splashed on Melaka church

According to Malaysiakini correspondent Humayun Kabir, St Louis Church (below), which sits adjacent to SM Convent was also struck with a bottle containing flammable liquid but with little damage.

In Malacca, Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau sent out a news alert that the police have confirmed that the Melaka Baptist Church in Durian Daun was splashed with black paint.

In Miri, some windows were broken when stones were thrown at the Good Shepherd Church.

Miri OCPD said the police cannot ascertain whether this case is related to those that happened in the peninsular.

Hermen Shastri, secretary-general of the Council of Churches, said officials had stepped up security in the wake of the fresh attacks.

"The attacks show they are more just a prank as it does not appear to be a major (attack), someone is trying to send a signal that they are unhappy," he said.

Over the past two days, four churches in the Klang Valley were hit by petrol bombs.

The Metro Tabernacle Church in Desa Melawati, the Assumption Church and Life Chapel Church, both in Petaling Jaya were attacked by unknown assailants between midnight and the early hours of Friday morning.

Yesterday, it was reported that the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Petaling Jaya was also attacked.

The Metro Tabernacle Church was worst hit - the ground floor of its three-storey building was completely gutted, while the other three churches suffered minor damages.

source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/121594

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