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| Southeast Asia |
| Guilty of torching church |
| 2010-08-14 |
| [Straits Times] A MALAYSIAN court sentenced two Muslim brothers to five years in prison Friday for torching a Christian church during the height of a dispute over whether non-Muslims can use the word 'Allah' to refer to God. Two ethnic Malay Muslim brothers in their 20s were arrested and placed on trial for the Jan 8 attack, which partially gutted a Protestant church. The attack came days after some Muslims were angered by a court verdict that allowed Christians to use the word 'Allah' in Malay-language publications. The January 7 torching of a church in suburban Kuala Lumpur, which sent tensions soaring in the multi-ethnic country, was 'appalling and despicable', said Sessions Court judge S. M. Komathy Suppiah. 'You both by your shameful and dastardly acts, you have shamed the country,' she told Raja Mohamad Faizal Raja Ibrahim, 24, and Raja Mohamad Idzham Raja Ibrahim, 22. Both men had pleaded innocent. They testified they were at a restaurant when they heard people planning to attack the nearby church. They said they went to the church and saw unidentified men smashing its window and setting it ablaze. One of the suspects, Raja Muhammad Faizal Raja Ibrahim, 24, was detained by police after he sought medical treatment for burn injuries. He alleged he suffered the burns at a barbecue gathering after he and his brother, Raja Muhammad Idzham, 20, left the church area. Reverend Thomas Philips, the head of Malaysia's inter-faith council, welcomed the verdict and said it was time for the nation to put the ugly episode behind it. 'We urge all Malaysians to respect one another's place of worship,' he told AFP. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Will the muslims re-build this church (sarc.) |
| Posted by: JohnQC on the road 2010-08-14 11:57 |