The Scriptures have the following profound words, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is Love your neighbours as yourself."

Despite our various religious and cultural differences, the people of Malaysia have always practised religious tolerance towards each other.

However, last Friday saw some very irresponsible people seeking to up the ante and wreak havoc to this existing tolerance by firebombing three churches in the Klang valley.

Though extensive damage was done to one particular church, the others suffered only minor damage.

January 11 saw the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) church in Seremban attacked by unknown suspects. Thankfully, the church suffered only minimal damage. This brought the number of places of worship which were attacked since last Friday to eight.

No arrests have been made.

The culprits may be feeling mighty proud of their handiwork in carrying out these dastardly acts. All I can say is that they have not succeeded in causing tension amongst the various races, but instead had brought Malaysians from all walks of life closer together against any form of religious extremism.

Unlike in other countries where religious confrontation seems to be the norm, I could never have envisaged such actions like attacking places of worship ever occurring happening in Malaysia.

But sadly, it did.

It was indeed good to see politicians from both sides of the divide coming out strongly in condemning the actions of these misguided individual or individuals.

And I am certain that at church services all over the country last Sunday, pastors and priests would have preached the meaning of love and understanding, tolerance and forgiveness to members of their congregation as expounded in the Scriptures.

Finally, I hope that those who know the identity of these perpetrators would come forward and blow their cover, especially their friends or family members who may have had prior knowledge of their destructive plans.

They will be doing the people and the whole country a big favour by letting the police know of their whereabouts so that they could be apprehended and questioned as to their motives before they can do further damage to the religious serenity that our country has enjoyed all these while.