Refrain from playing with religious sentiments or making wrong assumptions about the recent racial and religious developments in Penang.

This was the call made by Deputy Inspector-General of Police Bakri Zinin to all quarters today.

Asked if this included the government, Bakri said “everyone”.

He told a press conference in Penang today that every quarter should refrain from issuing racial and religious statements that disturb the sensitivities of people from the other races and religions.

"We are multi-cultural and multi-religious. We must not play with these types of sentiments," Bakri said.

However, the police are yet to solve the various cases that have cropped up in Penang over the past month that are seen as threatening the multi-racial and religious harmony that Penangites have enjoyed for ages.

Bakri said this when asked about an anonymous blog, allegedly related to Pakatan Rakyat, which said the Penang government was mulling the ban on the Friday sermon at mosques.

‘We are investigating the matter’

The Penang government has vehemently denied the matter and disclaimed that Pakatan members were related to the blog, to which Bakri’s response was, “This is not verified yet. Don't play with such sentiments.

“We are investigating the matter and these issues that are being played up become a tool. These issues are very sensitive.”

Bakri was also asked what he thought about the recent racial and religious developments in Penang, to which he replied “Don't think. We cannot think this and that. We have to look at the situation and probe the matter according to the law.”

He then called on the people not to perceive or make wrong assumptions about the current situation in Penang, where a hike in provocative racial and religious sentiments have been raised of late.

These included the hurling of two Molotov cocktails into the Assumption Church on Farquhar Street and the throwing of pork into the compound of the Tokun Atas Mosque in Machang Bubuk on mainland Penang.