Artist-turned-militant jailed 12 years for supporting terror activities

KUALA LUMPUR: An artist-turned-militant was sentenced to 12 years jail by a High Court here for giving support to terror activities.

High Court Judicial Commissioner Nordin Hassan meted out the sentence after Fauzee Ahmad (pic), 48, pleaded guilty Tuesday.

"I don't want the youth in Malaysia to be influenced by your actions and leave their families and responsibilities here to fight a religious war," JC Nordin told Fauzee.

"So the court has a duty not just to hand down a sentence but also to send a message to individuals to make sure they do not commit the same crime."

He added that militants had become a global issue and will destroy the stability and peace of our country and create chaos.

"We don't want to see terrorist stepping into our country."

JC Nordin ordered the sentence to run from the day of Fauzee's arrest on Oct 27, 2014.

Fauzee was calm when the sentence was handed out to him for taking part in terrorist activities involving firearms and explosives in Syria between June 29 and Sept 18, 2014.

His actions were seen to be advancing a religious struggle that endangered the lives of Syrian citizens.

He was charged under Section 130J(1)(b) of the Penal Code for knowingly entering Syria and giving support to a terrorist cause.

Fauzee's lawyer Eric Paulsen in pleading for leniency asked for a sentence between five to nine years in prison.

He said that Fauzee had a wife and six children, three of whom are still in school.

Paulsen added that his client went to Syria as an artist with the intention to paint the chaos and cruelty caused by the regime there over the Syrian people and was misguided into taking part in the fight there.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mustaffa P. Kunyalam sought a prison sentence that is proportionate to the facts of the case and asked for not less than 10 years jail time.

Mustaffa added that the court must take judicial notice that there has been an increase in terrorist related cases with the expansion of Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups.

He added that public interest, which was more important than the interest of the accused, must be taken into account in the case.

Subramaniam: Trend of distorting facts in text books on the rise

PETALING JAYA: There has recently been an increasing trend of people distorting facts to fit into the disordered and disturbed perception of individuals, says MIC president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam (pic).

In a statement on Tuesday, Dr Subramaniam said such individuals have led to the release of educational contents where facts have been dangerously mutilated by their disordered perception.

"Distorted historical facts are in school text books, in examination questions and now in university slides," he said.

He was speaking about a teaching module belonging to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) which was derogatory to the Hindu and Sikh communities in Malaysia.

The matter recently became viral on Facebook and deputy education minister Datuk P.Kamalanathan had met the vice-chancellor of the university on the matter on Monday.

The vice-chancellor had apparently claimed the module to be a 'mistake' and agreed to have it taken down.

Speaking on this matter, Dr Subramaniam said the “so-called mistakes" in the lecture slides of UTM have triggered a serious concern on the level of knowledge and depth of understanding of the various cultures and religions in Malaysia.

"This current case reflects that this desire to be ignorant had permeated to the dons of the ivory tower and the supposed pedestal of knowledge has become a pool of ignorance.

"We have seen this in schools before and now we realize it is also evident in universities," he said.

He then questioned the lack of intellectual honesty and added that there has to be a sincere desire by those in the educational system to be historically and factually true.

"Attempts to compare cultures and religions are always dangerous. It is dangerous even in the most liberated intellectual environment, what more in a multicultural and multi religious Malaysia?.

"Any attempt to do so has to be treated with careful steps," he said.

On Monday, Kamalanathan had posted a screen grab of the teaching module which had made claims that Hindus preferred to be 'dirty' and that Islam had taught Hindu followers "manners in life".

It stated that "some Hindu followers believed that dirt on the body is a form of ritual which could lead to attainment of Nirvana"

Another slide claimed that Sikhism is a combination of Hindu and Islam, but the founder of the religion had a shallow understanding of Islam.

Take stern action over offensive teaching module, Kamalanathan urges UTM

PETALING JAYA: Datuk P. Kamalanathan (pic) has called on the authorities of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) to investigate and take stern action against individuals responsible for the teaching module which was derogatory to the Hindu and Sikh communities.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the Deputy Education Minister wrote that he was really disappointed by the incident.

"Not as a politician or a deputy minister but as a Malaysian I was really disappointed about the UTM Islamic and Asian Civilisation Studies (Titas) misrepresentation of certain religions.

"I can't help but feel only someone who willfully and purposefully filled with ill intent would produce such a document," he wrote.

The Hulu Selangor MP also called for the Higher Education ministry to ensure that the Titas syllabus of all public universities be first verified by experts in the religion before being included in the syllabus.

"This will ensure such painful experiences are not repeated," he said.

Kamalanathan however added that the incident did not represent the views of the ministry or the leadership of the university.

"Being a former deputy minister in the Higher Education Ministry I am aware this incident is not at all representative of the values imbibed and demonstrated by the Ministry nor the Universities topmost leadership," he said.

On Monday, Kamalanthan had posted a screen grab of the teaching module which had made claims that Hindus preferred to be 'dirty' and that Islam had taught Hindu followers "manners in life".

It stated that "some Hindu followers believed that dirt on the body is a form of ritual which could lead to attainment of Nirvana".

Another slide claimed that Sikhism is a combination of Hindu and Islam, but the founder of the religion had a shallow understanding of Islam.

Kamalanathan said that he had spoken of the matter to the vice-chancellor of the university who acknowledged the mistake.