A prominent anti-government internet campaigner has been arrested in Malaysia.

Raja Petra Kamarudin was held under the country's oppressive Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.

He was accused of posting an article that insulted Islam.

His arrest comes a day after the country's army chief threatened people not to make remarks that could damage race relations. General Abdul Aziz Zainal called for stern action to be taken against anyone stoking racial tension in the country.

Raja Petra was detained by police at his home near Kuala Lumpur, two weeks after his anti-government website Malaysia Today was closed down.

Independent online news outlets and blogs flourish in Malaysia, says the BBC's Robin Brant in Kuala Lumpur, and Raja Petra had been a constant thorn in the government's side before his arrest.

Earlier this year, he wrote a piece suggesting Najib Razak, Malaysia's deputy prime minister, may have been linked to the murder of a Mongolian model.

The crackdown on dissent comes amid a race row that has threatened to engulf the government, our correspondent says. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had earlier suspended a member of the governing party who had described Malaysia's ethnic Chinese and Indians as "squatters".

Two newspapers have been put under investigation by the Interior Ministry for their reporting of the row. Also Malaysian advertisers on  Malaysia-Today have been visited by Commercial Crime Division and told to pull out their ads from the website immediately.

A prominent anti-government blogger in Malaysia has been detained for two years on charges of insulting Islam.

Raja Petra Kamarudin has been held without trial under controversial internal security laws which could see him detained indefinitely.

He was arrested on 12 September as part of a crackdown on dissent by the Malaysian government, which is facing a mounting challenge from the opposition.

Raja Petra's lawyer said the order was a big blow to civil liberty.

The BBC's Robin Brant in Kuala Lumpur said the well-known blogger had been a thorn in the side of the Malaysian government, using his blog to become one of its most vociferous critics.

Raja Petra, himself a Muslim, was accused of insulting Islam and inciting racial tensions through an article he published on the Malaysia Today website.

The arrest came shortly after he used his blog to accuse Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, of involvement in the 2007 murder of a Mongolian woman - a charge Mr Razak strongly denies.

The jailing of Raja Petra Kamarudin, a self-described risk-taker who has led Malaysia's lively blogging culture, has come to symbolize the government's new assault on Internet expression. On September 12, police raided Raja Petra's residence, seized documents, and arrested the popular blogger under the draconian Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial.

Two weeks later, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar ordered the detention extended for two years on charges that Raja Petra published seditious and anti-Islamic articles on his blog, Malaysia Today. The government, signaling a wider crackdown on dissent, detained a newspaper journalist and an opposition politician the same day.

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In what lawyers described as a landmark ruling, a court in Malaysia ordered the release of one of the country's best-known bloggers, ruling that the government acted beyond its authority in invoking a threat to national security.

Raja Petra Kamarudin, who was arrested September 12 and detained without trial, was expected to be released later Friday.

Lawyers have long complained that Malaysia's mildly authoritarian government uses the Internal Security Act as a tool against the opposition. The act allows for indefinite detention without trial. Raja Petra, one of the most vocal critics of the current government, was detained for comments posted on his Web site that the government said insulted Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad. He was also accused of posting articles that defamed the country's leaders and incited hatred against the government.

The court ruled that these were not sufficient grounds for detention under the Internal Security Act. The government can appeal the decision but the judge, Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad, ordered that Raja Petra be released without delay.

Tommy Thomas, a prominent Malaysian human rights lawyer, estimates that more than 20,000 people have been detained under the act.

Update: Exile

26th April 2009. See article from advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org

Popular Malaysian blogger and editor of the Malaysia Today website, Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK), failed to attend his sedition trial on April 23, 2009. As a result, the Sessions Court in Petaling Jaya issued a warrant of arrest against RPK. News reports state that Sessions Judge, Rozina Ayob, issued the order after prosecutor, DPP Shahidani Abd Aziz, applied for the warrant due to his absence. DPP Shahidani was reported to have said that the prosecution had no choice but to get the order to proceed with the trial.

On his website Kamarudin said that he had gone into  exile over a family dispute arising from comments about the Perak royal family

A Malaysian state government searched for a new site for a Hindu temple, bowing to pressure from Muslim residents who staged a gruesome protest against its planned construction that triggered debate about religious intolerance.

Authorities in central Selangor state tried to reach a compromise in talks with residents of the Muslim-majority neighborhood in the state capital, Shah Alam, where the temple was to be built. The meeting descended into chaos when protesters shouted insults at Selangor Chief Minister Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and other lawmakers, according to a video of the meeting posted on Malaysiakini, an independent news Web site.

The protesters insist the temple would be too close to their homes and could generate excessive noise and traffic, which would disrupt their concentration during Muslim prayers they ludicrously claimed.

Cow Head Protest

Based on article from prachatai.com

The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has criticised the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) over its request to online news portal, Malaysiakini to take down videos related to a controversial protest against the relocation of a temple in Shah Alam, close to the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

CIJ executive director Gayathry Venkiteswaran said the request was unwarranted as it is an attempt by the government body to silence the messenger, in this case the media, from reporting news.

She was referring to the letter sent to Malaysiakini by the MCMC requesting it to remove two videos from its website. One of the videos was a footage from the protest where a group of residents, mainly Malay Muslim dragged a severed cow head to the premise of the state government office to protest the relocation of a Hindu temple to their residential area on 28 August. Cows are generally regarded with respect by most Hindu devotees.

Despite the action, there was no immediate police investigation into the protest, which civil society groups condemned as legitimising violence and hatred. In the last week, the Home Minister has come out in defense of the protestors and even described them as victims in the issue. The Prime Minister has come out more strongly against the actions of the protestors and the authorities have promised to investigate the matter. The Home Minister's statement was made in an environment where activists, critics and opposition political parties have very little space for expression as the media is overwhelmingly controlled by the ruling government and where their public demonstrations have been met with heavy-handed tactics by the state.

Update: Cow Head Protestors charged with sedition

11th September 2009. Based on article from news.bbc.co.uk

Six Malaysian Muslims have been charged with sedition for parading the severed head of a cow through the streets of Shah Alam in Selangor state last month. The men were protesting against the building of a Hindu temple near a mosque in the area. Some of the demonstrators stamped and spat on the cow's head.

The case has stoked tensions between Malaysia's Muslim majority and the Indian, mainly Hindu, minority to whom cows are considered sacred.

Twelve of the protesters were charged with illegal assembly, which could see them fined and jailed for up to a year.

Six were also charged with sedition - for promoting hostility between different groups - and could face an additional three years in jail.

Defence lawyer Salehuddin Saidin said his clients were carrying the cow head to illustrate the state government's stupidity - and did not intend to offend local Hindus: For Malays, the cow symbolises stupidity, not an insult to any other religion, Salehuddin claimed.

The authorities in Selangor have now found an alternative site for the Hindu temple, further away from the mosque.

Update: Reporters without Borders supports malaysiakini.com

25th September 2009. Based on article from rsf.org

Reporters Without Borders has pledged its backing to independent news website Malaysiakini which has decided to resist an order to remove two news videos judged to be offensive by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

The commission told the website in a letter on 3 September that it considered the two film clips offensive and intended to upset people, and particularly the Indians. The penalty for refusing to comply is a fine of 50,000 ringgit (14,325 dollars) and one year in prison.

The website www.malaysiakini.com had posted two video clips accessible only to subscribers to the site, the first on 28 August showing demonstrations by Malay Muslims against the building of a Hindu temple in their neighbourhood, in which they spat on and trampled the bloodied head of a cow, an animal sacred to Hindus. The second, on 2 September 2009, featured interior minister, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, speaking at a press conference at which he urged demonstrators not to use violence, while defending their right to protest.

But in a change of stance, on 3 September, the minister ordered proceedings against the demonstrators. The removal order was made under the Communications and Multimedia Act of 1988 banning all content that is indecent, obscene, false, threatening or offensive with the intention or harming, abusing, threatening or harassing a third party .

The Malaysiakini website is right to resist the censorship the government is trying to impose on it. The authorities should understand that it is footage that shows something that happened, which may indeed be embarrassing for some authorities but does not constitute an offence , the worldwide press freedom organisation said.