Malaysian Churches Attacked Over ‘Allah Row’

Running tally of which churches and other targets have been hit so far.

9+1 CHURCHES, 1 SCHOOL:
1) Metro Tabernacle Church (Assemblies of God) at 12.30am, 8 Jan 2010
2) Assumption Church (Roman Catholic) at 4am, 8 Jan 2010
3) Life Tabernacle Church (Brethren) at 9am, 8 Jan 2010
4) Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (Lutheran)
5) All Saints’ Church, Taiping (first local Anglican church and heritage site)
5+1) A Rawang church which had stolen equipment
School 1) SMK Convent, Taiping (Roman Catholic)
6) Malacca Baptist Church, Malacca (Baptist)
7) Good Shepherd Church, Miri
8.) Sidang Injil Borneo, Seremban 2
9) St Elizabeth Church, Kota Tinggi
10) Grace Global Prayer church, Seremban

2 CLERGY:
1) A priest at the Agape Revival Church in Pandan Indah, Ampang, at 6.30pm, 8 Jan 2010
2) A car belonging to a pastor in Bukit Tengah

OTHERS:
1) The Herald website (Roman Catholic) on 2 Jan 2010
2) The Malaysian Judiciary website on night on 7 Jan 2010
3) Lawyer’s office representing the Catholic Church in the Herald case
4) Van belonging to Calvary church

MUSLIM PLACES:
1) A surau in Klang
2) Masjid Ar-Riyadh in Kota Samarahan near Kuching
3) 2 suraus near Muar
4) Wild boar heads thrown at mosques near Seri Sentosa

SIKH PLACES:
1) A Sikh temple in KL was stoned

Although The Herald is a Roman Catholic publication and is the main focus of the legal issue, the attackers make no distinction between different branches of Christianity in their assaults – any denomination will do, as long as they are Christian churches.

MORE:

• Malaysia Today: Vandals Strike at Malaysia Mosques With Boar Heads – Khalid Abu Bakar, chief of police in Selangor state near Kuala Lumpur, where one of Wednesday’s incidents occurred, said a group of men who went to Sri Sentosa Mosque to perform morning prayers at 5:30 a.m. found the two animal heads in plastic bags on the grounds. Their mouths were stuffed with bank notes. Authorities reported a similar incident nearby.
  • The Star: Church vehicle among four damaged in blast – Four cars including a Calvary church van were damaged after an explosion occurred near the low-cost flats in Taman Selesa Jaya.
    • The Star: Two surau hit by arsonists – Two separate surau in two villages in Sabak Aur and Parit Beting, located about one kilometre apart, were partially damaged in two arson attempts.
  • The Star: Lone culprit in Seremban church attack, say police – State police chief SAC I Datuk Osman Salleh said the suspect did not use any hard object to break the glass panel of the windows. A witness saw someone walking past the church on Friday night and that he hit the glass panel. But police did not find any wood or stone object at the crime scene.
    • The Jakarta Post: Malaysia Sikh temple hit with stones amid tensions – Some 20 small stones were thrown into the compound of a gurdwara, or Sikh temple, late Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur’s Sentul neighborhood.
      • The Star: Kota Tinggi church splashed with paint – The St Elizabeth Catholic Church here was splashed with red and brown paint. The doorsteps, front gates and fencing were covered in paint after seven plastic bags of paint were thrown at the church in Kota Kecil between 6am and 7am yesterday (i.e. 14 Jan).
    • The Star: Office of lawyers in Herald case ransacked – The office of the two lawyers representing the Catholic Church in the Herald case has been broken into. No documents pertaining to the case was reported missing, although a laptop computer and several files were stolen.
    • The Star: IGP: Arson attempt on eighth church – The entrance door of the Sidang Injil Borneo church in Seremban 2 was partially burnt in an arson attempt early Monday, said Negri Sembilan Deputy CPO Datuk Abd Manan Mohd Hassan. It is the eighth church to be attacked in the past three days.
    • The Star: SIB church in Seremban the latest victim of arson attack – The main entrance of the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) church at the Lakeview Square in Seremban 2 was scorched early yesterday in an arson attempt.
    • The Star: IGP: Attacks not well-planned – Musa said the modus operandi in the attacks were different, which could point to different attackers. Meanwhile, a priest at the Agape Revival Church in Pandan Indah, Ampang, was manhandled by four men who entered the church at 6.30pm. The intruders proceeded to damage the microphone and tore down posters before they left.
    • The Star: IGP: Church arson being investigated; police to patrol all churches – The three churches were the Metro Tabernacle Church in Desa Melawati, the Assumption Church in Jalan Templer and the Life Tabernacle Church, both in Petaling Jaya
    • The Star: Fourth attack only discovered yesterday – The attack, at about 1am, scarred the outside wall of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Jalan Othman here. It is believed that the attackers targeted the church window but failed to hit it with the molotov cocktail and hit the wall instead.
    • The Star: New cases of attempted arson and vandalism being probed – In Malacca, black paint was splashed on the outer wall of the Malacca Baptist Church in Durian Daun. The staircase leading to the 122-year-old All-Saints’ Church – the oldest Anglican church in the country – was slightly burned while the Molotov cocktail thrown into the school failed to explode. Meanwhile, in Miri, police were probing the minor vandalism of a church near Lutong after work­­ers found two broken windows yesterday.
    • The Star: Two more attempted arson cases – The locations affected on Sunday were the All Saints’ Church at Jalan Taming Sari and SMK Convent along Jalan Convent. The staircase leading to the church was slightly burned while the Molotov cocktail thrown into the school failed to explode.
    • The Star: Cops: Don’t speculate on surau attack – Police received a report on Saturday that a stone was thrown at the Taman Menara Maju surau in Jalan Kampung Jawa, shattering a sliding glass door.
    • Malaysiakini: Three churches fire-bombed – The Metro Tabernacle church in Desa Melawati, Kuala Lumpur, has been fire-bombed in an attack that gutted its ground floor early this morning. At least two other churches in Petaling Jaya have also been attacked in the past 12 hours.
    • The Malaysian Insider: IGP confirms three churches hit
    • Malaysia Today: Malaysia church torched amid Allah row
    • The Malaysian Insider: Herald website hacked as ‘Allah’ battle intensifies
    • Malaysia Today: Judiciary website hacked over ‘Allah’ issue

      

    So much for ‘As long as it doesn’t spill over into something serious’.

    I’d just like to note that all of this would not even be an issue if nobody had made a fuss about what Malay-language churches have been doing for decades without complaint from anyone.

    Tags: Allah Row, church firebomb, Malaysian churches