The only way Umno can make political gains in the Malay heartland is if they can prove that non-Malays torched those two surau in muar

It would be the ultimate nightmare for the non-Malay minorities and a bonus windfall for Umno's right-wing factions. If mass violence erupts as a result of raised political temperatures, it will always be the ethnic non-Malay non-Muslim minorities that will bear the brunt of it

This is the reason why many Malaysian Christians are perplexed by the surau arson attacks as they cannot think of many Christians stupid enough to do such a thing

The Malaysian Christian minority simply does not have the equivalent of an ‘Utusan Malaysia’ or Biro Tata Negara - that is, state-funded institutions that preach race hatred, apartheid, religious bigotry etc. So which of them would be stupid enough to cause arson against a surau?

Malaysian Christians do not have Umno-inspired employees like Ridhuan Tee, Akramsyah Sanusi Junid or Awang Selamat preaching race supremacy or justifying racism

Like any other ethnic minority in Malay-Muslim Malaysia, Malaysian Christians are well aware of Malaysia's sordid history of reckless incitement by Umno politicians. This includes the 1969

race riots, then the scapegoat-ing by Umno of the politically powerless followed by the tendency by Umno politicians to blame minority victims for any calamities that might befall them

I do not joke when I say that Malaysian Christians would be the first to give the perpetrators of arson on mosques and surau a tight slap across their faces for being stupid and evil enough to tarnish a religious house of worship if ever the arsonists are caught by the police...assuming that the perpetrators are non-Malays in the first place

Many Christians dread the idea that the perpetrators might be Christians because it gives the religious community such a bad name.

As for the perpetrators of arson attacks against the churches, now that the police say they have caught the likely perpetrators, I would not emphasise punishment at all. I may be Christian in my beliefs, but it is my opinion that rehabilitation and not punishment should be the way forwards for dealing with arsonists against the churches

We would need to find out what is the mindset of these arsonists, what drove them to such acts of violence, where did they acquire their hatred from, what is the logic behind their attacks, who incited them, who taught them such hatred, what were they trying to achieve and do they know who their real enemies are etc

A proper rehabilitation programme should focus on a proper education. If it is the case that the perpetrators of the church arson are young Malay-Muslim males who were mis-educated by our national school system, and Utusan, and Berita Harian and Umno, and BTN, then I would propose the following re-education programme.

I believe they should be taught to read in English as that will give them a wider access to facts, information, and worldviews than the dreadful hate-mongering Utusan Malysia, Berita Harian, Umno speeches, and BTN lectures

I believe they should be taught critical thinking so that they can distinguish and analyse bias, prejudice, hidden agendas, lies and truth when they read Utusan, Berita Harian, or BTN propaganda

I believe they would benefit from reading Spiegelman's ‘Maus’, ‘Anne Frank's Dairy’, and ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’.

I believe they would benefit from being taught the Quran by ethically minded scholars and ‘ustaz’

Ethical people like PAS leaders Khalid Samad, Yusof Rawa, and Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat would make excellent teachers as the arsonists would be taught never to confuse the religion of Islam with the cult of ‘ketuanan’ lest the arsonists continue to worship the NEP and racism.

I believe the arsonists would benefit from socialising with people from other faiths including with those from Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism as only then will they gradually realise that Umno has lied to them

For 50 years Umno has told them that the non-Malays and non-Muslims have stolen their birthright, their money, their property, and now their ‘Allah’ too, so firebombing churches would seem a logical act of self-defence.

For 50 years Umno has told them that the Chinese and Indian ‘pendatang’ are a threat to their ‘agama, budaya dan negara’ so what else can you expect from the Mat Rempit of this generation?

If we focus on punishment, then we will be missing a great opportunity to promote true unity amongst the different faith communities in Malaysia.