Pigs heads found at Malaysia mosques amidst Allah row

Pig heads were found at two mosques on Wednesday near a neighbourhood hit by an ethnic clash nine years ago, Malaysian police said, following a series of recent arson and vandalism attacks on religious places of worship.

The discovery of the pig heads - an animal considered offensive to Muslims and whose consumption is prohibited - could further inflame tensions in the mainly Muslim country, prompting police to issue a stern warning against stirring up emotions.

Eleven churches, a Catholic school, a Sikh temple, three mosques and two Muslim prayer rooms so far have been hit by arson or vandalism in recent weeks amid a row over the use of the word 'Allah' by Christians.

Analysts have said the attacks, although not an immediate risk, are raising worries among some foreign investors at a time when Prime Minister Najib Razak has pledged to lure more foreign investment.

Police said two pig heads were found at a mosque in a mainly Malay but racially mixed neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur, and another two at a mosque on the outskirts of the capital.

"I am warning people not to try and influence the situation and don''t try to take advantage to raise the anger of any ethnic group," Selangor state police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told Reuters.

The mosques are located near a neighbourhood which in 2001 was hit by an ethnic clash that local media said left six people dead.                                           

Khalid said police were working closely with local mosque and neighbourhood committees to try and keep residents calm. 

The row stems from a court ruling on Dec. 31 last year allowing a Catholic newspaper to use the word "Allah" in its Malay-language editions to describe the Christian God.

The use of the word is common among Malay-speaking Christians, who account for 9.1 percent of the 28 million population, mostly in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak.

A group created in the online networking site Facebook to protest the use of the word by non-Muslims has so far attracted more than 250,000 people.

Lee Hock Guan, a political analyst at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said the incidents could further stoke racial anger, depending on the government's response.

"They must find who is responsible for this act and bring them to justice," he said. "If the government takes a firm stance to not allow any demonstration over this issue, then it will give people some time to cool down."

The government has warned that laws, including the Internal Security Act that allows detention without trial, would be deployed to keep tensions from boiling over.

Police have so far arrested 19 people over the attacks, and a 25-year-old Malay student was charged in court on Jan. 15 with threatening public safety following a comment he allegedly made on his Facebook page offering to throw petrol bombs. 

The government of prime minister Najib Razak is appealing against the court verdict and has condemned the arson and vandalism attacks, but analysts say he may lose votes among non-Muslims unhappy with the row.

Malaysia''s mainly Chinese and Indian non-Muslim ethnic minorities, who form 40 percent of the country's population, abandoned the ruling coalition in the 2008 general elections partly due to complaints over increasing religious marginalisation.