PKR wants Ezam charged for ‘jihad’ speech

By Shannon Teoh

August 12, 2011

Ezam (front, centre) threatened two news portals with arson during the demonstration in Shah Alam, August 12, 2011. — Picture by Jack Ooi

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — PKR today demanded that its former leader Ezam Mohd Nor be charged for threatening to burn down news portals that the senator accused of false reporting against Islam.

Vice president N. Surendran said in an immediate response to Ezam’s speech made after Friday prayers that “the making of this blatant threat is a criminal offence under our laws.”

“We are appalled that a sitting member of the Dewan Negara has uttered such words and threatened publicly to carry out criminal acts... a threat of grievous harm or death against [the news portals’] staff, writers and other occupants

“Freedom of the press is an essential pillar of any proper democracy. It is disturbing that a senator from Umno, which is the backbone of the Barisan Nasional government, has threatened mob action and arson upon the news media,” he said in a statement this evening.

Ezam had vowed today to wage war against those who try to proselytise Muslims, in a highly-charged assembly where he also defended the state Islamic religious authorities’ raid on a dinner at a church last week.

The former PKR leader and a group of demonstrators rallied after Friday prayers here in support of the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) over its raid at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) in Petaling Jaya on August 3.

“We are ready for war. I stress that illah is Allah and we will die to defend Islam,” he said.

He accused news portals Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider of false reporting against Islam and warned that “if you don’t stop all this rubbish, we will go and burn you down.”

Surendran added that the threat proved that BN had no respect for the constitutional freedoms of expression and speech, and called for the police and the Attorney-General to take action against Ezam under Sections 503 and 505 of the Penal Code, for criminal intimidation and mischief.

Jais had said that it was investigating the organisers of the fund-raising dinner for attempting to convert Muslims under Section 4 of the Non-Islamic Religions Enactment 1988.

The raid has caused uproar among religious communities but Muslim lobby groups have rallied behind Jais.

Selangor executive councillor for religious matters Datuk Dr Hasan Ali also defended the raid by claiming that the words “pray” and “Quran” were used in the presence of the 12 Muslims who were among the 100 attendees of the dinner.