1. Worldwide Religious News (http://www.wwrn.org)
12 Muslims fined for Malaysia Hindu temple protest
by Julia Zappei (AP, July 27, 2010)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - A Malaysian court fined 12 Muslims on Tuesday and sentenced one of them to a week in prison for illegally protesting the construction of a Hindu temple and parading a severed cow's head.
The protest last August stoked tensions among Malaysia's three main ethnic groups - the Malay Muslim majority and Chinese and Indian minorities, most of them Buddhists, Christians or Hindus who have complained that their religious rights are often sidelined in favor of Islam.
The 12 men were among scores of Muslims who marched with a bloodied cow's head from a mosque to the central Selangor state chief minister's office on Aug. 28, 2009 to denounce the state government's plan to build a Hindu temple in their largely Muslim neighborhood.
Some of the protesters also stomped and spat on the head and made fiery speeches that deeply offended Hindus. The cow is the most sacred animal in Hinduism.
All 12 pleaded guilty in a Selangor district court Tuesday to a charge of illegal assembly and were fined 1,000 ringgit ($320) each, said defense lawyer Afifuddin Hafifi. They faced up to a year in prison and a fine for the charge.
Two of them who brought and stepped on the cow's head also pleaded guilty to sedition. Both were fined an additional 3,000 ringgit ($960), and one was sentenced to a week in prison, Afifuddin said.
Sedition, defined as promoting hostility between races, is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine.
The conflict highlighted frustrations among minorities about strict government guidelines that restrict the number of non-Muslim places of worship, partly based on whether enough non-Muslims live where a church or temple is to be built.
Authorities in Selangor eventually found a new site to build the controversial temple.
A. Vaithilingam, a Malaysian Hindu religious leader, raised concerns that the penalties imposed by the court Tuesday might appear inadequate to some Hindus.
"The sentences seem to be very light after the huge commotion and the insult," he said. The men's actions "stirred up the emotions throughout the country. This could have caused a riot."
The protest was among the most high-profile in a string of interfaith disputes in recent years that threatened decades of harmonious ties between Malays, who make up nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 28 million people, and ethnic minorities.
Early this year, a string of firebomb attacks and vandalism hit mostly non-Muslim places of worship following a court verdict that allowed Christians to use "Allah" in Malay-language publications.
Some Muslim Malaysians insist the non-Muslim use of "Allah" would confuse Muslims and tempt them into converting. Minorities say this is an example of institutionalized religious discrimination, but the government denies any bias.
・Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
2. Union of Catholic Asian News (http://www.ucanews.com)
Muslims fined over ‘cow-head’ incident , 27 July 2010
by ucanews.com reporter, Kuala Lumpur
A court in Malaysia’s Selangor state has fined 12 Muslim men whose protest over the relocation of a Hindu temple last year saw one of them stepping on the head of a cow.
Mohd Azmir Mohd Zain, who stepped on the animal’s head was fined 3,000 ringgit (US$940) by the court on July 26.
Eyzva Ezhar Ramli, who brought the cow head, was sentenced to one week’s jail and also fined 3,000 ringgit.
Both men could be imprisoned for three months if they are unable to pay the fine.
Both pleaded guilty to a sedition charge, and also to another charge – that of illegal assembly, for which they were fined another 1,000 ringgit each.
They were part of a group of Muslim men who in August 2009 demonstrated at the State Secretariat building in the Selangor state capital of Shah Alam.
They were protesting a planned relocation of a 150-year- old Hindu temple to their neighborhood.
Another 10 were fined 1,000 ringgit each on an amended charge of illegal assembly.
Cows are considered sacred to Hindus.
Local media reported Hindu Sangam president Mohan Shanmugam as welcoming the sentences but describing them as “minimal.” However, he said it still served as a warning to groups looking to stoke religious tension.
“The law has taken its course. They have been charged and convicted,” said Reverend Philip Thomas, president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism.
“If they are genuinely remorseful about the whole incident, let’s forgive and forget.”
Muslim Member of Parliament Khalid Samad, from the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), said the Muslim men’s protest was politically motivated and that the sentences were not going to be a deterrent.
“It sends a bad message and falls short of what people were expecting. The actions of the cow-head protesters were extreme and provocative,” he told local media.
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