The police have arrested four men allegedly involved in the firebombing of two surau in Muar, Johor, two days ago.

According to the police, the four are aged between 16 and 28 years.

It is believed that one of the youths is the son of a police officer.

muar surau arson 210110 parit beting jalan salleh

The quartet were detained at separate locations yesterday morning, less than 48 hours after the arson attempts on the surau at

Jalan Ismail Omar and the other at Jalan Salleh.

Some curtains and part of a window caught fire in one of the surau and police found traces of kerosene residue at the window.

Meanwhile, the front door of another surau was scorched. Both surau suffered minor fire damage.

Suspects live near surau

Deputy inspector-general of police Ismail Omar said the suspects,

who included a waiter and an unemployed, lived near the surau.

"Investigation is on-going. It is not known what the actual motive is," he told reporters.

He said police would obtain an order to remand the suspects.

The arrests follow the detention of 15 others for attacks on churches.

Since Jan 8, there has been a spate of attacks on places of worship, the majority being churches.

The attacks are believed to have been triggered by the High Court's Dec 31 decision to lift a government ban on non-Muslims using 'Allah' as a translation for 'God'.

The ruling in favour of Catholic newspaper Herald , which argued for the right to use 'Allah' in its Malay-language section, was suspended last week pending an appeal, after the government argued that 'Allah' is exclusive to Malay Muslims.