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The Bar Council is concerned over the recent spate of events reported in the newspapers involving the burning of five churches and the reported anthrax scare at the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) headquarters in Petaling Jaya. The Bar Council welcomes the response of Deputy Home Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung that the Government views the cases in relation to the churches seriously and has committed itself to religious freedom and tolerance.

The Bar Council shares the view that such acts must not be treated lightly as the above events have occurred during a time when religion has become a sensitive issue both locally and internationally. In the light of the US strike against terrorism in Afghanistan, such acts may conceivably be interpreted by the victims and other concerned members of the public to be expressions of religious intolerance in Malaysia.

The Bar Council agrees with the Deputy Home Minister that it is too early to conclude whether the acts were the work of arsonists or religious extremists. While police investigations are said to be underway, the  Bar Council hopes that the authorities will carry out a thorough investigation and urges the investigation findings to be made public as soon as possible to prevent undue speculation by the public. For the same reasons, the NECF incident also calls for investigation and for the persons responsible to be brought to book.

This is paramount in view of Malaysia being a multi-racial and multi-religious society where the social fabric must be balanced. Citizens must have the confidence that they are, in practice, able to exercise their constitutional rights to practice religion freely and without fear. These rights must be protected in order to ensure that unity, justice and national security are safeguarded at all times.

Dated this 15th day of November 2001

Mah Weng Kai
Chairman
Bar Council