Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing has denounced the brief detention of a priest and the police seizure of hymnals with the term ‘Allah’ in an incident that occurred in Tangkak earlier this month.

The head of the Catholic Church in the Malacca-Johor diocese described the incident on Dec 5 as an “enlargement of the vigilantism and harassment of Christians which has now spread to Johor.”

Catholic priest Cyril Manayyagam was briefly detained by police and his statement recorded after he had returned to a shop in Ledang, Tangkak, to collect 30 copies of a book of hymns he had given for photocopying.

Fr Cyril tried to explain that the hymnals were for the use at Christmas of a community of Orang Asal/Asli in Bekok, Muar.

The community of about a 100 parishioners only understands Bahasa Malaysia and has been Catholic for decades.

Bishop Paul Tan, in whose diocese Fr Cyril serves, has strongly protested the harassment of the priest and the non-return of the hymnals.

“Up to now, it has been religious authorities who have taken upon themselves to conduct these fruitless, arrogant and very disruptive actions on Christians.

“I remind our authorities that Article 11, 3 (a) guarantees each religion in Malaysia the right to manage their own affairs. And that was all that was happening with the hymnals. They were for internal use for a Catholic service,” said the Jesuit-trained prelate.

According to the bishop, there are tens of thousands of native bumiputera Christians who work in peninsular Malaysia.

“Johor has one of the highest percentages of Sabahans and Sarawakians. We also have had, for more than a 100 years, Orang Asal/Asli communities who are Catholics.”

Bishop Paul urged the police to return the hymnals as “they have no right whatsoever to keep them.”