Author:
Publication: Zenit.org
Date: October 18, 2001
Arson attempts against Catholic
churches in Malaysia might be a reaction to the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan,
unofficial Church sources reported.
Arsonists last Saturday tried to
burn down the Catholic Church of Christ the King in Sungai Petani, in the
northern state of Kedah, the Malaysian Prime Minister's home state.
The church was locked, and the vandals
only succeeded in burning some furniture which was near the windows. Workers
who arrived Saturday morning saw the church filled with smoke and the doors
burned.
On Sunday morning, in the southern
state of Johore, Molotov cocktails were thrown at the door of St. Philip's
Catholic Church in Segamat. The door was burned, but not the tabernacle,
where another Molotov cocktail failed to explode.
Malaysia has 22 million people,
most of them Muslim. Catholics number about 712,000, Church data show.
