Malaysia charges 12 Muslims for anti-Hindu protest

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 be built.

Defense lawyer Salehuddin Saidin 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.

Authorities in Selangor, which is governed by an opposition coalition, later said they found a new site in Shah Alam to build the temple, a few hundred yards (meters) from the original site and further away from the mosque.

Some opposition lawmakers accuse the United Malays National Organization, the main party in the national ruling coalition, of instigating the protest to destabilize the state government. UMNO denies the accusation.

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.

(This version CORRECTS the defense lawyer’s name)