PENANG, Malaysia: A lay Catholic activist who last year lodged a police report against reporters of an Islamic magazine for desecrating Communion hosts has made a third visit to the police station to pursue the case.

Sudhagaran Stanley, on Feb. 3 went to a police station in Kuala Lumpur to hand in a memo to protest inaction on the case. Two weeks earlier, he wrote a letter to the prime minister complaining of the same.

The Malay-language “Al-Islam” magazine had reported in its May 2009 issue that two Muslim journalists went into two Catholic churches in Kuala Lumpur, received Holy Communion, spat out the hosts, and then took photos of them.

The journalists said in the magazine article that they were investigating rumors of Muslims converting to Christianity, and stated that they found no evidence of this.

On July 8, Stanley together with Joachim Francis Xavier, both from Penang, lodged a complaint with police over the article.

When the police apparently failed to act, Xavier and Stanley, together with lawyer Annou Xavier, handed a letter to the Dang Wangi police station on Aug. 20, asking about the status of the investigation.

On his latest visit to the police station in Kuala Lumpur, Stanley was accompanied by three lawyers from the Centre for Independent Journalism.

Police chief ‘refused to see us’

“We wanted to get an update on the investigation,” Stanley told UCA News, “but we were disappointed that … the police chief refused to see us.” Nevertheless, Stanley said he handed the memo to a constable and was told to submit a letter to the chief officer.

Earlier, Stanley wrote a letter to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak saying the police inaction “is sending a wrong signal out to Malaysians … (that) it is OK to enter places of worship and spy and humiliate their worship.”

The letter, dated Jan. 20 and copied to the deputy prime minister, home minister and national police chief, added: “It is because that there was no action taken at the very beginning itself, today there are people in Malaysia who are brave (enough) to bomb churches.”

Since Jan. 8, 11 churches, three mosques, two surau (Muslim prayer rooms), a Sikh temple and a convent school across the country had been vandalized or were targets of arson attacks.

The attacks are believed to be linked to the High Court ruling on Dec. 31 which allowed the Catholic weekly “Herald” to use the word “Allah” to refer to God in its Malay-language section. Police have since charged seven Muslims.

Stanley says he wants “an immediate response on the ‘Al-Islam issue’” and for the journalists to be charged in court as soon as possible under laws that protect communal and religious harmony.

Courtesy: UCAN