KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian police have announced the arrest of 8 suspects believed to have participated in a firebomb attack on a Christian church.
The arrests are the first in connection to a spate of assaults on churches amid religious tensions between the ethnic Malay Muslim majority and the Christian minority.
The unrest follows a Dec. 31 court ruling that allowed non-Muslims to use the word “Allah” to refer to God. The verdict upset Muslims who make up nearly two-thirds of Malaysia’s 28 million people.
Bakri Zinin, the federal police chief of criminal investigations, said Wednesday that 8 suspects had been detained overnight in connection to an attack on Kuala Lumpur’s Metro Tabernacle Church, which had its office gutted by fire.
