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©New Straits Times (Used by permission)
by Farrah Naz Karim

PUTRAJAYA: Several Islamic bodies have lodged police reports against blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin for allegedly insulting the Malays, Muslims and Islam in his articles and comments published.

Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director-general Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz, who was among those at the police headquarters here for the purpose yesterday, said it was the department's responsibility to safeguard the interest of Muslims in the country and act against the blogger.

"There were articles by him that were insulting to Islam, Muslims and Prophet Muhammad.

"The articles were also prejudicial and appeared to be reflective of the voice of a third party who had no understanding of Islam and similar to the western media's approach.

"So he was acting as an agent to insult Islam and Muslims in this country," he said.

Others present to lodge similar reports were Federal Territory Religious Department director Datuk Che Mat Che Ali, Islamic Da' Wah Foundation Malaysia general manager Abdul Ghani Mohamad and Federal Territory Islamic Council chief executive officer Anan C. Mohd.

Wan Mohamad said Jakim would not tolerate such acts and asked that the police investigate the matter thoroughly to serve as a lesson, not only to Raja Petra, but all Muslims and non-Muslims in the country to be more civilised, especially in the current volatile social climate.

He said while the government strived to mend differences among races to ensure stability, "poisonous writers" could hamper all these efforts.

Wan Mohamad also revealed that the department's intelligence had also identified a group of writers and bloggers who were inclined towards producing articles that were offensive to Muslims.

"They (bloggers) can write to express their views but do not insult Islam."

Meanwhile, the Home Minister has denounced Raja Petra as a blasphemous Muslim of the worst kind.

Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, who supported the move by several Islamic bodies to lodge a report against Raja Petra, said the latter could not escape responsibility even if he claimed that the blog does not belong to him.

"It does not matter who the owner is. He seems to represent himself as the person who is responsible for Malaysia Today, so he has to face the consequences of the law," he said at the breaking of fast with ministry staff.

Syed Hamid also told reporters that cabinet members expressed shock when they were given a note on the contents of the articles.

"Even the non-Muslims in the cabinet were shocked."

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