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The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism & Taoism wants the police to be consistent, fair, just and rational in carrying out their duties, regardless of religion, ethnicity, culture, gender or political connection.“There must be one rule for all Malaysians,” its president Rev. Dr Thomas Philips said in a statement yesterday.

The council is concerned over different measures taken by the police over two incidents namely the cow head incident on Aug 28th in Shah Alam and the would-be candlelight vigil in the vicinity of Dataran Merdeka on Sept 5th.In the first incident, police stood by while the demonstrators desecrated a cow head and made seditious speeches in connection to the relocation of a Hindu temple to a predominately Malay-Muslim area, while in the latter, police acted strongly against the vigilers, said Philips.

Cows are considered sacred by Hindus.“Also, Malaysiakini has now been warned by MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission) not to make the video showing the terrible acts in the Shah Alam incident available for viewing to their readers,” he said, adding that removing the video will not unmake the act.“We must surely first prevent the act and the video would not have existed,” he said.

Philips said the cow head incident is not an isolated case, highlighting the recent desecration of the Holy Eucharist in a church where the consecrated bread was taken and spat out by two reporters from Al Islam magazine.“Such irreverent and sacrilegious conduct should not be condoned and allowed to be repeated with impunity. The same rules must apply to all,” he said in the statement.

Philips also took a swipe at Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein for meeting with the organisers of the cow head protesters, saying it sent the wrong signal to the people.Philips also said that anyone who incites ill feelings amongst religious communities, denigrates any religion, desecrates the religious symbols of any religion or threatens to commit violence against others must be promptly deterred and held accountable.“They must face charges and be given a fair trial in a court of law. Sacrilegious acts committed by adherents of any one religion upon another religion must never be condoned,” he said.