After successfully organising two public forums on constitutional rights in Petaling Jaya and Malacca without incident, a coalition of civil society organisations is both surprised and upset that their Penang meet yesterday was forced to end early.

The abrupt end came about after a rowdy crowd of about several hundred gathered to chant provocative slogans across the street from Cititel Hotel in Penang, the venue of the public forum organised by Article 11, the name of the coalition.

A few local participants claimed to have recognised several Umno and PAS faces in the crowd that subsequently turned aggressive and unruly.

The protest, believed to be the work of non-political Muslim-based NGOs, saw posters being waved about and provocative slogans being chanted. They included the wordings 'IFC Rampas Kuasa Raja-Raja' (IFC seizes sultans' power), 'IFC = Zionis' and 'IFC Angkara Zionis' (IFC is the work of Zionists).

Others included 'Perangi Islam Liberal' (Fight Liberal Islam), 'Don't humiliate Islam', 'Don't seize our rights' and 'Jangan hina undang-undang Allah' (Don't insult Allah's laws).

According to eyewitness accounts, flyers protesting the formation of an interfaith commission, a proposal that has since been shelved by the prime minister, were also distributed amongst the crowd yesterday.

Early last year, a group of Muslim-based NGOs demanded that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi halt the formation of an interfaith commission for fear of promoting apostasy .

Apostasy remains the main concern of conservative Muslims represented by the Allied Coordinating Committee for Islamic NGOs (Accin) which firmly opposes the proposed interfaith commission or any such statutory body.