More provocative banners found, this time outside Penang Island churches

Other ‘Allah’ banners, believed to be identical to that found this morning at a Catholic Church in Butterworth this morning, were discovered in a few churches on Penang Island, fuelling suspicion that the planting of these banners is the work of a ‘dirty tricks’ group up to no good. Could it also have been an attempt to divert attention away from the anti-price hikes protest rally on mainland Penang this afternoon?

Blog visitor Boo Soon Yew provided an alert:

The same type of banner with the exact wordings was outside the Lutheran Church at Island Glades also, at around 6.30am … but you can obviously see if would NOT have been put up by the church people as it was hanging haphazardly across the hedge at the fencing.

When contacted, the pastor of the Victory Church, Rev Albert Vijay Joseph, confirmed the discovery of the banner outside the church, located along Lorong Delima in Island Glades in Penang Island.

He said the wording on the banner read: “Allah is Great, Jesus Christ is the son of Allah.” That would make it almost identical to the wording found on the banner at the Catholic Church of the Nativity in Butterworth on mainland Penang.

The Victory Church is expected to lodge a report with the police soon.

Meanwhile, Patrick Charles reports on my Facebook:

There was one such banner at the bus stop in front of St John Britto church (in Sungai Pinang) this morning. It must be the same irresponsible person or group.

As mentioned in an earlier post, this could be the underhand work of a person(s)/group out to stoke Muslim anger against Christians in a Pakatan-ruled state. The other possibility is that these banners were put up in a “dirty tricks’ attempt to divert attention – and news coverage – away from the Himpunan Turun 2.0 rally on mainland Penang today.

But Malaysians are much wiser now and can see through such crude attempts at stirring the pot or diverting our attention away from the real issues.

Update: Meanwhile, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng tweeted that three such banners were found in churches in Penang. The other church he mentioned was the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Pulau Tikus, Penang. Guan Eng added he had spoken to the Chief Police Officer of Penang, who said he would increase patrols around churches.

The Malaysian Insider reports that a banner was also put up at the Church of the Assumption in Penang Island.

Bernama, for its part, reports that banners were found at five churches and a bus-stop along Light Street. Even the Jelutong Umno chief was reported as saying that he did not believe it was the work of the churches: “I believe certain individuals have deliberately created the provocation by hanging such banners at the church grounds to incite racial riots in this country.”