In a multi-religious country like Malaysia desecrators of places of worships must be punished severely

Updated 28 Aug 2010:

Three teens plead guilty to splashing paint at surau (Updated)

By SARBAN SINGH (TheStar)

SEREMBAN: Three teenagers pleaded guilty to two counts of committing mischief by splashing paint on the exterior walls of a surau and for throwing bottles into the compound of the recently completed building in Taman Pulai Impian Indah near here on Monday. T

he three, aged between 16 and 17, and from Ulu Temiang and Sikamat near here, were brought to the Child's Court here about 3.10pm Friday to face the charges under Section 427 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 34 of the same code.

All three, clad in saffron coloured lock-up uniform, looked remorseful and were quickly whisked into the court by policemen. Reporters were not allowed into the court room.

The court was also packed with family members of the accused who had turned up several hours earlier.

Another 18-year-old teenager who was also arrested in connection ith the crime has since been released.

The trio allegedly committed the offences between 3am and 4am on the said day. Those convicted of mischief can be jailed up to two years and fined or both.

Under the first charge, all three friends were accused of throwing the bottles into the compound of the surau. For the second charge, the second and third accused had allegedly splashed red paint at the exterior walls of the building.

The first accused was also charged with abetting his two other friends to splash red paint at the surau.

Worshippers who turned up at the month-old-surau on Monday morning had a shock when they saw the surau vandalised.

Police arrested the four within hours, and produced them at the magistrate's court here on Tuesday morning and obtained a four-day remand order.

The four apparently vandalised the place of worship after they were told off by members of the congregation for playing firecrackers in the surau's vicinity.

On Wednesday, the parents of the four teenagers held a press conference where they apologised for the boys' actions.

They expressed shock that their children could resort to such an irresponsible act and begged the Muslim community to forgive them.

Magistrate M. Mageshwary later released the trio on a RM2,000 bail each and fixed Sept 22 for a remention pending a report from the Welfare Department.

The three friends were represented by Lee Kong Fei while Mahmud Abdullah prosecuted.

Original Post:

Congratulations to the PDRM for quick reaction in nabbing the suspects of the Surau paint splashing incident in Seremban.

Its a good thing that the NS Police Chief said that it is not a racial or religious issue BUT whatever the motives of the incident, the full force of the Law should be applied on these youths as they have intentionally desecrated a place of worship and there can be no excuse for what they have done which could cause unnecessary religious and racial tension in our community.

From the MI:

Teenagers arrested over surau paint splashing
By Adib Zalkapli August 24, 2010(MI)

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 — Four teenagers aged 16 to 18 were arrested early this morning in connection with red paint splashed at a surau (Muslim prayer hall) in Seremban yesterday.Negri Sembilan police chief Datuk Osman Salleh said initial investigation showed that the four Chinese teenages acted following misunderstanding with members of the surau.

“They played with firecrackers a day earlier and was told off by the people from the surau,” Osman told a press conference.

“This is not a racial issue or a religious issue,” he said.

Osman described the attack as a mischievous act motivated by minor misunderstanding.

Osman also attempted to play down the incident saying that the attack did not leave any major damage to the surau.

He said one of the suspects is unemployed while the rest are working.

Osman said the four would be remanded until Friday and are being investigated under Section 295 of the Penal Code for allegedly offending a religion, which punishable by imprisonment of up to two years.

The surau in Taman Pulai Jaya Seremban was found splashed with red paint early yesterday morning by local Muslims before performing dawn prayers.

Several broken liquor bottles were also found within the surau compound.

Early this year, two churches in Seremban were attacked following the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling allowing Christians to use the word Allah outside of the Muslim context.

Firebombs were thrown at one of the churches, leaving scorch marks at its front door, while another church had one of its windows broken.

Two mosques near Petaling Jaya also suffered attacks early this year when pig’s heads were found within their compounds. Pigs are considered unclean and offensive by Muslims.