Two surau, one in Jalan Ismail Omar and the other in Jalan Salleh, in Muar sustained minor damage after arson attempts were made on them in the early hours of this morning. 

   

Johor deputy police chief Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the attempt on Surau Silaturahim in Jalan Ismail Omar happened at around 2.30am while the one on Surau Parit Beting in Jalan Salleh, which is located about two kilometres from the first, was believed to have been at about the same time.  

"Three men passing by Surau Silaturahim in a car noticed a fire at it about 2.30am and took action to extinguish the flames before lodging a police report," he told reporters at the Muar police headquarters.                         

   

muar surau arson 210110 According to Bernama , he said some curtains and part of a window caught fire in the incident at Surau Silatarahim and that police found traces of kerosene residue at the window concerned.

 

"At Surau Parit Beting, burn marks were noticed at its main entrance door at 11am when a religious teacher came to conduct religious classes at the surau and subsequently a police report was lodged at 1.30pm," he said. 

He added that losses were estimated at around RM300 for each of the surau and that investigations were ongoing.

Jalan Ismail Omar surau's imam Haji Deris Sehan, 63, told Malaysiakini that the assailants had used kerosene to start the fire.

arson attack masjid silaturahim 6 Since Jan 8, there has been a spate of attacks on places of worship, the majority of which being churches.

The attacks are believed to be triggered by the High Court's Dec 31 decision to lift a government ban on non-Muslims using 'Allah' as a translation for 'God'.

The ruling in favour of Catholic newspaper Herald , which argued for the right to use 'Allah' in its Malay-language section, was suspended last week pending an appeal, after the government argued that 'Allah' is exclusive to Malay Muslims.

DAP condemns attack

In an immediate reaction, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng condemned the attacks.

muar surau arson 210110 surau parit beting jalan salleh "We do not know if the incident has any link with the current spat of destructive attempts on various places of worship, be it mosques, churches or Gurdwaras, but it certainly created more anxiety among peace-loving Malaysians.

"The DAP strongly condemns the destructive behaviour of the perpetrators of such irresponsible attacks who clearly intend to provoke suspicion among our multi-racial and multi-religious communities," he said.

"We urge the police to step up its investigation and monitoring mechanism to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to prevent any further similar incidents from happening," he added.

 

azlan