[Straits Times] TWO more Malaysian churches were targeted by arsonists on Sunday, police and church officials said, as a row escalated over the use of the word 'Allah' by non-Muslims. The latest attacks in Taiping, in the northern Perak state, brought the total number to six since Friday but there were no reports of injuries, according to state police chief Zulkifli Abdullah.
He said a Molotov cocktail was thrown at All Saints Church early in the morning before worshippers attended their Sunday service while church officials found a bottle of kerosene in another church.
'There were black marks on the wall (at All Saints). We believed there was a small fire earlier but there was no damage as the wall was intact,' Mr Zulkifli told AFP. He said a bottle of kerosene was thrown into St Louis Catholic Church but added that the building wasn't damaged.
Four churches in the Kuala Lumpur area have been hit by firebombs since Friday, leaving one badly damaged with its ground floor gutted, and prompting Prime Minister Najib Razak to promise to crack down on race crime.
Mr Hermen Shastri, secretary-general of the Council of Churches, said officials had stepped up security in the wake of the fresh attacks. 'The attacks show they are more just a prank as it does not appear to be a major (attack), someone is trying to send a signal that they are unhappy,' he told AFP.