SHAH ALAM, Malaysia —

A Malaysian court charged 12 Muslims with criminal offenses Wednesday for parading a severed cow head to protest the construction of a Hindu temple in a case that stoked religious tensions in this multiethnic country.
 
The 12 were among a large group of people who had marched from a mosque in Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state, to the state chief minister’s office on Aug 28 with the bloodied cow head. The cow is the most sacred animal in Hinduism.
 
They stopped at the gates of the office where they stomped and spat on the head after listening to fiery speeches by their leader. Their actions were recorded on video, and the footage was uploaded onto the Internet.
 
Twelve of the protesters were charged with illegal assembly and six of them were also charged with sedition, which is punishable by up to three years in jail and a fine. Illegal assembly is punishable by one year in jail and a fine.
 
Sedition is defined as promoting ill will and hostility between different races.
 
The Shah Alam Sessions Court freed all 12 on bail. No date has been set for the trial, but the case will be heard again on Oct 21.
 
The cow head protest deeply offended Hindus and stoked tensions among Malaysia’s main ethnic groups—the Malay Muslim majority and Chinese and Indian minorities. Indians are mostly Hindus.
 
Many of the protesters were residents of a largely Malay Muslim neighborhood in Shah Alam where the state government had planned to build the temple near a mosque.
 
The conflict highlighted frustrations among religious minorities about strict guidelines that restrict the number of non-Muslim places of worship, partly based on whether enough people of the non-Muslim faith live in the area where the church or temple is to built.
 
Defense lawyer Salehuddin Saldin said his clients did not intend to offend Hindus, and carried the cow head only as a symbol of the state government’s “stupidity.”
 
“It is not a serious offense. If you look at the Malay culture, the cow is synonymous to stupidity and not meant to insult other religions,” he said.
 
P. Uthayakumar, a prominent Hindu activist, dismissed the argument as laughable.
 
“It is a lame excuse and completely unacceptable. They are clearly inciting the Hindus,” said Uthayakumar, who noted that the Muslim protesters had also warned of bloodshed if the temple was built there.
 
State authorities in Selangor later said they found a new site in Shah Alam to build the temple, a few hundred meters from the original site and further away from the mosque.
 
Neighborhood resident Sharel Mohammad Nor said relations between Muslims and Hindus had become tense since the protest, and urged Hindus to accept the new site.
 
Many Malaysians, including Muslims, have criticized police for failing to halt the protesters and the government for failing to crack down swiftly on them as they have with other anti-government demonstrators.
 
The protesters insist the temple could generate excessive noise and traffic, disrupting their concentration during prayers.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

› Login to comment

6 Comments

• 

  timorborder at 01:24 PM JST - 9th September

  Given the Malaysian Government's strong views regarding crimes against Islam (canning wayward Muslim's who drink, etc.), it will be interesting to see how independent the court system is in addressing incidents like this that incite religious tensions in the country.

  Comparatively speaking, Malaysia is a more stable state than many others in which Islam is a mainstream religion, however, it will be interesting to see how far the court system goes if the defendants are found guilty. A punishment that is too lenient might upset Malaysia's very powerful ethnic Chinese and Indian communities, both of whom pack a rather big economic punch (as well as upsetting neighbors such a Singapore). On the other hand, a heavy-handed approach to dealing with this case might put some ethnic Malay noses out of joint.

• 

  skipthesong at 01:36 PM JST - 9th September

  yeah, but they are not threatened with death, which would hve been the case if it were the other way around

• 

  seijichuudo9sha at 05:38 PM JST - 9th September

  The Malaysia chapter of PETA absolutely must protest this tiny minority of intolerant Muslims who give their faith a bad name by parading the severed head of a cow around in an attempt to anger Hindus.Make them listen to President Obama's Cairo speech again,or have them contemplate his Ramadan address to the Muslim world.

• 

  sharky1 at 07:18 PM JST - 9th September

  They didn't charge enough muslims with the offense.

• 

  ilcub76 at 08:28 PM JST - 9th September

  So much for Islam being a "religion of peace". If the cow is a symbol of stupidity, then were the Muslims inferring that the Hindus are stupid? Either way, it would be insulting to the Hindus, wouldn't it?

• 

  Molenir at 12:52 AM JST - 10th September

  No I think they were referring to themselves. I mean why else would anyone join a religion such as that. Well, unless you were born into it. Can't help who your parents are.

Register or Login to leave a comment