But those behind the incident are pleading ignorance. 

Check out this news from Malaysia:

A Malaysian Muslim magazine issued an apology after two of its journalists joined a Catholic service and allegedly desecrated the communion wafer.

AFP reported the magazine, Al Islam, published an article describing how they took the wafer and spat it out after entering the church to investigate claims that Muslims were illegally converting to Christianity.

“Al Islam magazine apologises … because the article had unintentionally hurt the feelings of Christians, especially Catholics,” it said on its website Utusan Karya.

“It is also not the intention of Al Islam to insult the Christian religion nor to desecrate their house of worship,” said the monthly magazine, which reports on issues concerning Malaysian Muslims.

The apology came after the archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Murphy Pakiam, on Thursday criticised the government’s failure to act over the incident and sought an apology from the publication.

“The journalists have displayed utmost disrespect for the Catholic community when they admit receiving and spitting out the Holy Communion,” the archbishop said.

However, Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail defended the handling of the incident, saying the pair did not understand the significance of the wafer which Catholics believe represents the body of Jesus Christ.

“The actions of the two reporters may have hurt the feelings of the people but I was satisfied that they did not intend to offend anyone. It was an act of sheer ignorance,” he said.

Al Islam, however, said the two writers also apologised for “unintentionally hurting the feelings” of Christians.

“Al Islam hopes such an incident will not happen again,” it said.

Well, as usual, the reporter got at least one detail wrong: Catholics do not “believe (the host) represents the body of Jesus Christ.”

Check the link for more.

UPDATE: I’ve decided to shut down the comments here. 

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