Rais hits out at YouTube; anti-Islam film finally blocked in Malaysia

The minister is angry with YouTube for failing to remove the controversial 'Innocence of Muslims' clip and says legal action can be invoked against the online video site.

KUALA LUMPUR: Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim has described YouTube as being insensitive to the anguish of Muslims the world over as it has yet to remove film clips of the “Innocence of Muslims” from its listing.

“That’s how insensitive they are,” he said in a statement to Bernama today.

Rais said free speech did not include causing or creating hatred among Muslims against those who had debased their religion.

Given the widespread protests in the Islamic world, he said, YouTube had every reason to take off the anti-Islamic film from its listing.

“YouTube appears to be oblivious to the tumult it has caused. The owner of YouTube does not deserve to be spared the ire of Muslims or the long arm of the law,” he added.

Rais said the public prosecutor had every right under the Penal Code to book quarters who cause disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will on grounds of religion between groups of persons who had violated Section 298A of the Penal Code.

He said the powers of the authorities under the Communications and Multimedia Act could also be invoked.

The film has been condemned by both Muslims and the Coptic Orthodox Christian Church as “an inflammatory movie” while the World Council of Churches said the film was “an insult to the heart of the Muslim faith”.

Google blocks anti-Islam film
However in another development, AFP reported that Google has begun barring access in Malaysia to the anti-Islamic film that has sparked fury across the Muslim world after the country’s Internet regulator lodged an official complaint.

The low-budget movie has angered followers of Islam for its mocking of the Prophet Mohammed, and for portraying Muslims as immoral and gratuitously violent.

A spokesman for video-sharing site YouTube, owned by internet giant Google, told AFP on Monday that it began restricting access to clips of the privately-produced film Sunday, in line with its community guidelines.

“When videos breach those rules, we remove them. Where we have launched YouTube locally and we are notified that a video is illegal in that country, we will restrict access to it after a thorough review,” he said.

MCMC was reported to have asked Google on Saturday to remove clips of the controversial film, believed to have been produced by a small group of extremist Christians in the United States, from YouTube.

Some extracts of it were still available on the video-sharing website on Monday but several other clips had been blocked to users in the Muslim-majority country.

Google has also denied access to the videos in Indonesia, Libya, Egypt and India.

- Bernama/AFP