KANGAR: A freelance Muslim preacher who is also the chairman of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) was arrested early Sunday for allegedly causing disharmony.
District police chief Superintendent Wari Kiew said the arrest of the 34-year-old, who has a criminal record, was made at 2.30am in front of a restaurant in Arau.
He said the arrest was made under Section 298A of the Penal Code for causing disharmony, disunity, or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion, as well as Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for improper use of network facilities or network service.
“The arrest was made following the lodging of a report against him at the Jalan Tun Razak police station (in Kuala Lumpur) yesterday (Saturday). At the time (of arrest), he had just finished attending a debate programme or religious discussion organised by his NGO at a public university in the state.
“Perlis police have only detained him. (Federal police in) Bukit Aman will be investigating the case as the report was lodged in Kuala Lumpur alleging that he had insulted another religion,” he said when contacted.
The report on Saturday was lodged by a religious NGO. It alleged that a video of the man, said to be a protege of Indian preacher Dr Zakir Naik, had been uploaded on Facebook in which he had insulted another religion.
In fact, it was reported that at least 13 other police reports had been lodged against the preacher for allegedly making statements deemed insulting to Hinduism during a religious ceramah recently.
The reports were said to have been lodged by various NGOs at police stations across mainland Penang over the past few days.