Published on: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 |
Kuala Lumpur: A court fined 12 Muslims 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.
The 12 men were among scores of Muslims who marched with a bloodied cow's head from a mosque to the Selangor Menteri Besar's office on Aug.
28, 2009 to denounce the State Government's plan to build a Hindu temple in their largely Muslim neighbourhood.
The new temple was built 200 metres away from the opposed site.
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 to a charge of illegal assembly and were fined RM1,000 each, said defence 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 RM3,000 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 temple.- AP
