Youth who ‘insulted Islam’ remanded

The youth who was alleged to have insulted Islam is being investigated under the Sedition Act and the Penal Code for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

PETALING JAYA: J Gopinath, who was alleged to have insulted Islam on his Facebook page, is currently held under remand by the police.

“He will be detained till Oct 1 pending investigations. We’ll refer the matter to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for advise,” said Klang South district police chief Muhammad Mat Yusop.

The 25-year old youth is being probed under Section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act and Section 298 (a) of the Penal Code for deliberately making statements to hurt the religious sentiments of another.

Gopinath was alleged to have insulted Islam last week, which prompted several social media users to create the ‘Kami Benci Gopinath Jayaratnam’ page. The page currently has 5,529 followers.

Yesterday, Gopinath’s home in Taman Klang Jaya was attacked by several men, who destroyed furnitures and damaged his car.

No one was injured in the attack as Gopinath and his family were not at home.

A group calling itself Jemaah Fisabilillah Klang said it masterminded the attack and even posted on the Kami Benci Gopinath Jayaratnam’s page that they would track down Gopinath’s family.

Asked on the attack, Muhammad said the police had no leads on the matter for now.

When pointed out that Jemaah Fisabilillah Klang had claimed responsibility for it, he said:” This is the first time I’m hearing this. I’ll look into it.”

Why did he do it?

Meanwhile, MIC central working committee member S Vell Paari condemned the attacks on Gopinath’s home and urged the police to take action on the matter.

“What Gopinath did was wrong but we should let the authorities handle it,” he added.

On that note, the MIC leader also urged the police to investigate what prompted Gopinath to post such derogatory statements.

He pointed out that Gopinath was riled up over a YouTube video which showed Islamic speaker Shah Kirit Kakulal Govindji ridiculing Hinduism.

The video, which was posted in June 2003, is a 10-part series where Shah Kirit is giving talks to a predominantly Muslim audience about Hinduism.

FMT’s check revealed that Shah Kirit passed insulting insinuations on Hindu gods Brahma and Saraswathy in part five of the video.

The video pointed out that Shah Kirit was a Hindu before he converted to Islam in 1996.

Shah Kirit is currently working with the Saba Islamic Media, an organisation that is bringing controversial India-based Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik to give talks in Malaysia.

Vell Paari said the police should be fair and investigate both Gopinath and Shah Kirit for insulting religions.

“Shah Kirit should be probed as well,” he said.

Vell Paari said at times, some new converts to Islam tend to get overzealous in professing their new faith by insulting their previous religion.

“These people try to act more Malay than the Malays themselves. Shah Kirit must remember that it was his Hindu mother that gave birth to him,” said Vell Paari, who added that MIC would lodge a police report against Shah Kirit soon.