The Christian Federation of Malaysia yesterday pleaded with national leaders to condemn publicly the recent arson attacks on churches as well as provide greater protection to places of worship.

"Strong Muslim national leaders should condemn the attacks, or else it could be misconstrued as a silent consent to what is happening," said CFM principal secretary Rev Wong Kim Kong.

The umbrella body to some 5,000 churches nationwide also appealed to the authorities to prohibit the media from biased coverage on religious conflicts such as those in Indonesia and Palestine in order not to provoke the public.

The appeals were presented to Deputy Home Affairs Minister Chor Chee Heung during a one-hour meeting between the minister and seven CFM representatives in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Other pleas include thorough investigation on destruction of places of worship and stiffer penalty for the perpetrators.

"We told him that we will give our full co-operation in eradicating extremist activities and that it was important to have better surveillance and patrolling in areas with places of worship," Wong told malaysiakini .

"The minister said he recognised the sensitivity of this issue and advised us not to make any conclusion until police are done with their investigations," Wong added.

He said Chor promised to look into the matter and if possible, arrange a meeting for CFM with the ministry's chief, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also the deputy prime minister.

Petrol bomb

In July, a church in Kedah was pelted with Molotov cocktails, completely damaging its interior. Last month, two other churches in the same northern state had their windows smashed and chairs burnt.

Another church in Johor was later reported to have been attacked with petrol bombs though the fire did not catch on.

Five people were arrested for the arson attempt and police said there was no sign of racial or religious motive.

The latest such incident happened a fortnight ago in Selangor where one church's main hall, office and classrooms for children were gutted in a pre-dawn blaze. Police have yet to determine the cause of the fire.

Though no one was hurt in the spate of arson attacks, CFM estimated that they had incurred a loss of at least RM1 million.

Police claimed that attacks on churches are reported from time to time and therefore cannot be anything more than "mischief activities".

However, Wong stressed that such attacks rarely happened in the past and were only on the rise possibly as a fallout of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the United States and US' retaliation on the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan which started in early October.

The government has repeatedly called on the US to halt its military actions on Afghanistan which is harbouring Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the Sept 11 carnage, while demonstrators comprising mostly Muslims had organised several protests at the US embassy.

Be patient and forgiving

Wong said CFM has issued letters to churches on how to deal with the present situation and help prevent recurrence of church attacks.

He explained that apart from asking the churches to be patient and forgiving, CFM also advised them to be more considerate of the beliefs of non-Christians.

"It is important to have cognizance of other faiths. Churches have to be more discreet in what they do and less aggressive with their approach to the public," he said.

Citing the vast distribution of pamphlets published by churches as an example, he said it could lead to misunderstanding of Muslims and even non-Muslims about the Christian community.

Wong also noted that integration of different ethnic and religious groups has declined over the years as a result of the present education system and the resurgence of Islamic hardliners' movement in the region.

"Children attend schools of different teaching mediums and seldom mix together, and at the same time some Muslims are becoming warier of the others," he said.

To solve the problem, Wong said, "Perhaps the political leaders have to evince a stronger political will while paying attention to the needs of different people."