Muar surau fire damages window, curtains

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid- The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 — A surau in Muar, Johor suffered damage to one window and curtains in a blaze early this morning but police are cautious in linking the incident to a spate of attacks on houses of worship over the controversial “Allah” ruling.

Muar OCPD Mohammed Nasir Ramli told The Malaysian Insider that pre-dawn blaze only damaged the curtains and a window of the Sirratulrahim Surau in Kampung Sabak Awor, Jalan Ismail in Muar.

“We are still investigating... we don’t know if it was attacked, we can’t say that. Let the police do its investigations first,” he said in a phone interview.

The Muar police chief said three youths from the area had discovered the damages at about 3am and reported it to the police.

Nine churches, one mosque, one surau, one Sikh temple and one convent school have been damaged by fire, paint or stones since Jan 8.

The attacks came in the wake of the Dec 31, 2009 High Court ruling that allowed Catholic weekly Herald to use the term “Allah” to describe the Christian God in their Bahasa Malaysia section. The government has appealed against the decision and obtained a stay of execution.

In a statement today, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng condemned “the destructive behaviour of the perpetrator of such irresponsible attacks, who clearly intended to provoke suspicions among our multi-racial and multi-religious communities”.

“We urge the police to step up its investigation and monitoring mechanism to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to prevent any further similar incident from happening in order to safeguard our harmonious way of life,” the Penang chief minister said.