ASIA/MALAYSIA - Government vows to preserve religious harmony and public order and suppress attempts to cause inter-religious violence

Kuala Lumpur (Agenzia Fides) - Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said his government intends to keep religious harmony and public order and that it will show no indulgence with fundamentalist groups which want to start inter-religious violence. His statement was backed by the security forces. The statement was made following an attack on Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic church in a Ipoh, north of the capital Kuala Lumpur. On Sunday 5 November the church was surrounded and attacked by a about 1,000 Islamic militants protesting because - informed by a strange SMS message- they thought the church was celebrating the conversion and baptism of numerous Muslims to the Christian faith. The information was false but a police intervention was necessary to disperse the protesters.
An investigation is underway to discover the origin of the rumour which triggered the violence. In the meantime the national political leaders have said episodes of inter-religious violence will not be tolerated and instigators of hatred and intolerance will be prosecuted, warning individuals and groups not to promote similar cases. Deputy internal minister Datuk Mohd Johari Baharum said the government will not hesitate to use force recalling that Malaysia “is multiethnic and multi-religious”.
Bishop Paul Tan of the diocese of Johor who is also head of Council of Churches of Malaysia wrote that the Council of Churches of Malaysia and the Christian Federation of Malaysia, on behalf of the different denominations in the country, praised the attitude of the police and the government, reaffirming the idea that the unrest is caused by fundamentalist groups anxious to increase inter-religious tension to undermine social harmony and relations between the different communities. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 8/11/2006 righe 29 parole 296)