2010-01-27 : Pig Heads Thrown Into Grounds of Malaysian Mosques

By Barry Porter

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Pig heads were found at two Malaysian mosques, the latest incident of desecration and vandalism following an inter-faith dispute over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.

Worshippers arrived for morning prayers at a mosque in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, to find the bloodied heads of two wild boars wrapped in plastic bags together with one-ringgit notes. Heads were also found in the grounds of a mosque three kilometers (1.9 miles) away, police said. Pigs are considered unclean animals in Islam.

“I advise the public to stay cool and not to react to certain people who are trying to stir the situation,” Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a telephone interview.

Acts of violence were reported against 11 Christian institutions, one Sikh temple and two Muslim prayer rooms in the past three weeks following a High Court judge’s decision to allow a Catholic newspaper to refer to God as “Allah” in its Malay-language section.

“These are attempts by certain quarters to create chaos in the country,” Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today, pledging to track down those responsible.

Malaysia’s government banned non-Muslim publications from referring to “Allah” in 1986 on the grounds it could threaten national security and confuse the country’s Muslims, who make up more than 60 percent of the 27 million population.

“Any violence on a place of worship and prayer of any religion is in a sin of the highest order,” the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism said in a statement. “It is disappointing that such sins continue unabated. Don’t let the provocateurs succeed.”

Police Arrests

Police have arrested 15 Muslim men in connection with the church attacks and four other unidentified suspects linked to the attacks on Muslim prayer rooms.

Political and religious leaders have denounced the recent upsurge in violence, which follows decades of largely amicable inter-faith relations. The incidents, including a series of fire-bombings, add to a perception that Malaysia is coming under the influence of extremists.

Last year, dozens of Muslims paraded with a bloodied head of a cow, a sacred animal in Hinduism, to protest the proposed relocation of a Hindu temple to their neighborhood.

Pop star Beyonce Knowles canceled a concert in Kuala Lumpur last October without explaining why after an Islamic political party protested her revealing stage clothes. A young mother is awaiting a caning sentence to be carried out in Malaysia as punishment for drinking a beer.

To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Barry Porter at bporter10@bloomberg.net