MALAYSIA
The owner of the resort is seen here in court this morning following his arrest. He has been remanded for four days. August 13, 2013.The owner of the resort in Kota Tinggi who had allowed a group of Buddhists to meditate in a surau there has been remanded for four days.The Star Online reported that Kota Tinggi Sessions Court registrar Hairul Azhar Mohamad issued the remand order today against the resort owner who is a Singaporean with Malaysian permanent resident status.
The 45-year-old man was arrested on Sunday afternoon at the Tanjung Sutera Resort and is currently being investigated under Section 295 of the Penal Code for defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class.
His arrest came after a YouTube video portrayed a group who looked like monks conducting religious prayers in a surau, leading a group in meditation in front of a portrait of Buddha.
The 63-second video called "Chinese Buddhist pray in surau: surau becomes temple" was uploaded on August 10 and has generated more than 10,000 views.
It was reported in Berita Harian yesterday that the resort owner defended his action saying that he did not think the action of giving permission to believers of other religions to use the surau was wrong.
He was quoted as saying: “This is because they only wanted to use the surau for meditation.
"So we allowed them to use the surau in the resort but their bringing other religious items into the surau was done without my knowledge." - Aug 13, 2013
COMMENTS (45)
Like the Seri Pristina school canteen debacle, the owner let his customers use the perhaps inappropriate facilities also with good intention, so why must the polis be so hard on him in this case?
Whats the big fuss la....what is the harm and injury ocassioned, was someone stopped from using the place for his worship, did it interfere in any ongoing religeous activity
to anger disturb, interrupt anyone
The place was used by some people of another faith to pray, they PRAYED THERE
they did NOT remove defecate there or disturb any fixture or person
it is the owners right to allow any place of his to be used
if you think it was not a right thing to do just make an announcement OWNERS MUST PUT UP NOTICES AT PLACES OF WORSHIP AS TO WHO CAN USE THE PLACE
arresting the owner in this case and charging for 'defiling a place of worship' is exttreme
no one did anything knowingly to defile any place here,
no mens rea case !!
release the poor bloke immediately
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WoW... Does this mean that the Surau is the property of the Muslim community of Malaysia or the Mufti? It was in HIS resort by the way...? Furthermore, he wasn't even using the meditation to spread Buddhism to Muslims in the first place.
What I don't get is, if ones faith towards a certain religion is weak, would arresting certain individuals reinforce ones faith? This to me shows the incitement of fear.
The owner should have state the prayer room is for multi faith usage instead of surau. All govenrment buildings and schools should change the surau into multi faith prayer rooms,
It is not a war between Muslims and non-Muslims.
It is a war by UMNO AGAINST MALAYSIANS.
If other guests were to mediate or to conduct religious prayer in such rooms, can they be considered insulting Islam too???????
1. Buddhists monks seldom do religious prayers, and even if they do, they usually do it in a temple of their own. It is strange that a group of monks decide to request for a room to do their prayers. Unheard of to be honest.
2. It is also strange for a group of monks to be staying in a resort. What are they doing there? Holidaying?
3. Why a surau? And why was a video recorded in this case? Isn't it clearly meant to stir up some trouble?
My bet on this matter is that it was staged. Staged by someone who wants to create trouble for the community in general. Someone who will benefit from the fissure between race and religion. And we all know which party that person belongs to now, don't we?
In Malaysia non-muslim's tolerance of every thing islam is taken for granted. Meanwhile every thing about other religion is subject to the whims and fancies of the islamic religious authorities and adherents.
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1) A lady wearing mini skirt walk pass a mosque -- charge for disrespect
2) A non Muslim man talking over his handphone while walk pass a mosque and say "Oh my god" -- charge for trying to spread his religion in front of mosque
Only some narrow minded Muslims in Malaysia are to be blamed. These people think that they are righteous.
Like that also got arrested.
Really Non Muslims.... dont meddle or get involved in Muslim things. There are lots and lots of things and issues we do not understand. Just too sensitive.
Just ban all religions except for UMNO Baru's allowed form of Islam from Malaysia and be done with it!