The Saudi journalist fled his country after making some Twitter comments about Prophet Muhammad.
KUALA LUMPUR: The police today said they had detained a young Saudi journalist who fled his country after Twitter comments he made about the Prophet Muhammad triggered calls for his execution.
Hamza Kashgari was taken into custody after flying into Malaysia’s main international airport yesterday, police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf told AFP.
“Kashgari was detained at the airport upon arrival following a request made to us by Interpol after the Saudi authorities applied for it,” he said.
The state news agency Bernama said the 23-year-old Kashgari had been detained by Muslim-majority Malaysia “for allegedly insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad”.
AFP could not immediately confirm where the 23-year-old Kashgari flew in from and officials in Interpol’s office in Malaysia could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last week, on the prophet’s birthday, he tweeted: “I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t understand about you.
“I will not pray for you.”
As fellow Muslim countries, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia have close ties but do not have a formal extradition treaty.
However, an official with the Malaysian home ministry who asked to remain unidentified said Kashgari could be extradited under other bilateral security agreements.
Malaysia has in the past summarily deported people it considers undesirable.
Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, a spokeswoman for Malaysian activist group Lawyers for Liberty, said Kashgari was a blogger who had decried the “oppression of women”. “This is again a violation of freedom of expression. He has every right of making comments and so on without being persecuted,” she told AFP.
“Malaysia should give asylum to him. But instead they are conspiring with the Saudi government. It’s abhorrent.”
‘An infidel’
Kashgari’s controversial tweet sparked some 30,000 responses, according to an online service that tracks Twitter postings in the Arab world.
Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam and is a crime punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
Kashgari has apologised but that has not stemmed calls for his head.
A committee of top clerics branded him “an “infidel” and demanded he be tried in an Islamic court, while a Facebook page entitled “The Saudi people demand Hamza Kashgari’s execution” has attracted thousands of followers.
The incident has shone a spotlight on the use of freewheeling social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia.
Top Saudi cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh has called Twitter “a great danger not suitable for Muslims” and “a platform for spreading lies and making accusations”.
But millions of Saudis, including many government officials, have created Twitter and Facebook accounts.
KUALA LUMPUR: The police today said they had detained a young Saudi journalist who fled his country after Twitter comments he made about the Prophet Muhammad triggered calls for his execution.Hamza Kashgari was taken into custody after flying into Malaysia’s main international airport yesterday, police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf told AFP.
“Kashgari was detained at the airport upon arrival following a request made to us by Interpol after the Saudi authorities applied for it,” he said.
The state news agency Bernama said the 23-year-old Kashgari had been detained by Muslim-majority Malaysia “for allegedly insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad”.
AFP could not immediately confirm where the 23-year-old Kashgari flew in from and officials in Interpol’s office in Malaysia could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last week, on the prophet’s birthday, he tweeted: “I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t understand about you.
“I will not pray for you.”
As fellow Muslim countries, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia have close ties but do not have a formal extradition treaty.
However, an official with the Malaysian home ministry who asked to remain unidentified said Kashgari could be extradited under other bilateral security agreements.
Malaysia has in the past summarily deported people it considers undesirable.
Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, a spokeswoman for Malaysian activist group Lawyers for Liberty, said Kashgari was a blogger who had decried the “oppression of women”. “This is again a violation of freedom of expression. He has every right of making comments and so on without being persecuted,” she told AFP.
“Malaysia should give asylum to him. But instead they are conspiring with the Saudi government. It’s abhorrent.”
‘An infidel’
Kashgari’s controversial tweet sparked some 30,000 responses, according to an online service that tracks Twitter postings in the Arab world.
Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam and is a crime punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
Kashgari has apologised but that has not stemmed calls for his head.
A committee of top clerics branded him “an “infidel” and demanded he be tried in an Islamic court, while a Facebook page entitled “The Saudi people demand Hamza Kashgari’s execution” has attracted thousands of followers.
The incident has shone a spotlight on the use of freewheeling social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia.
Top Saudi cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh has called Twitter “a great danger not suitable for Muslims” and “a platform for spreading lies and making accusations”.
But millions of Saudis, including many government officials, have created Twitter and Facebook accounts.
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