Sikhs urge public not to speculate on temple attack

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal - The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 — The Malaysian Gurdwaras Council (MGC) today appealed to the public to stay calm and to let the government handle the situation concerning yesterday’s attack on a Sikh temple in Sentul, where a barrage of stones had cracked the sliding glass door to the entrance of the temple.

The council’s president, Harcharan Singh, told The Malaysia Insider that the council as well as the Sikh community were very concerned with the situation and are willing to assist in any way possible.

“We are concerned with the situation and we want to help educate people on the matter. Everyone should stay calm and let the government decide how to deal with the situation according to the law,” said Harcharan.

Harcharan stated that the police were still in the process of investigating the incident, and urged people not to speculate on any connection between the Sikh temple incident and the spate of church attacks which started last Friday.

“Please do not speculate on the situation. Speculation is always bad. If anyone wants more information, come to the Gurdwara, we are here all day if you need any clarification.

“They (people) shouldn’t link it to the issue of the attacks,” stated Harcharan.

The attack on the temple has made it the first non-Christian house of worship hit since the controversial landmark “Allah” ruling.

The Sikhs also use the term to describe God in their Punjabi language and had unsuccessfully sought to be part of the Roman Catholic Church’s legal suit to use the word in the Bahasa Malaysia edition of its Herald newspaper.

Eight Christian churches and a convent school in Selangor, Perak, Malacca, Negri Sembilan and Sarawak have been hit so far in the attacks which followed the Dec 31 High Court decision allowing the church to use the word “Allah.”

The stoning of the Sikh temple or gurdwara in Jalan Haji Salleh near the former Sentul Railway Yard comes a week before Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib makes a three-day official visit to India on Jan 19 to meet his counterpart Manmohan Singh, a Sikh himself, and reflects the government’s struggle to contain the issue and keep it from spiraling out of control.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Muhammad Sabtu Osman confirmed the incident when contacted by Bernama news agency.

During the incident, he said, several volunteers who were busy cleaning the temple witnessed stones flying into its main entrance and immediately alerted the police.

Some 20 stones were thrown from outside the temple compound, he said, adding that police had retrieved the stones and were carrying out further investigations.

They are an important minority among the Indians who form seven per cent of the 28 million population.