Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin was today questioned by the police over two articles on Islam posted on his Malaysia Today website but hit back by lodging a police report over his ISA detention.

Before he was quizzed by the police, Raja Petra, 58, who is the editor of the popular blog lodged a report against the authorities for his almost two months’ detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

raja petra kamaruddin sentul police station 181108 02 Raja Petra, who was at the Sentul district police station for 90 minutes to give his statement, said police are investigating the reports lodged against him by four parties regarding two articles and a comment posted in Malaysia Today.

The four parties were the Malaysia Islamic Development Department (Jakim), the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP), Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) and the Foundation for the Propagation of Islam Malaysia (Yadim).

The two articles which have raised the ire of the Islamic organisations were ‘I promise to be a good, non-hypocritical Muslim’ and ‘Not all Arabs are descendants of the Prophet’.

“The attorney-general has instructed the police to investigate on the two articles in question following the four police reports filed against me.

court cases against raja petra kamaruddin rpk 181108 “However, I did not give much of a statement to the police as I told them I gave a similar statement while they questioned me for 10 days during my ISA detention that started on Sept 12.

“I also informed them I was detained under the ISA for almost two months because of those reports, and they cannot take a similar action against me as this was reciprocal.”

He was accompanied by lawyers J Chandra and Amarjeet Sidhu when he went into the police station for his statement to be recorded.

Raja Petra added that the police had yet to determine the section of the law under which they are investigating the case.

He also said he did not know whether police would take action against him but reiterated they had already punished him with the ISA detention.

ISA detainees ‘not allowed’ Friday prayers

The blogger had earlier arrived with his wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, in a black Volkswagen SUV about 2.30pm where he first lodged a report on his ISA detention before his statement was recorded.

raja petra kamaruddin sentul police station 181108 01 Sporting a cigar, the blogger was seen puffing away before he made the police report.

Asked about the details of his ISA report, Raja Petra complained that detainees were not allowed to perform Friday prayers.

“The officers at Kamunting also informed the detainees that the Mufti of Perak told them detainees need not perform Friday prayers,” he said.

The blogger also said he was given five religious classes on Oct 28 while in detention where an ustaz from Jakim claimed that all other religions were false and only Islam was the right religion.

“The ustaz also said all other Holy books except the Quran are false,” he said, adding he felt compel to lodge the police report because of this.

Raja Petra was detained under ISA on Sept 12 following the posting of the two articles and another one titled, ‘Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell’.

Home Minister Datuk Syed Hamid Albar had signed the ISA detention order against Raja Petra for three reasons:

  • that he owns and operates the Malaysia Today website;

  • publishing his articles and readers' comments intentionally and recklessly which were critical and insulted Muslims, affecting the purity of the religion and the personality of Prophet Muhammad; and

  • publishing articles deemed defamatory or false concerning Malaysia's leaders, with the intention of undermining public confidence and inciting hatred against the government; the articles are alleged to be a threat to national security.

However, Shah Alam High Court judge Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad in ruling the detention as unlawful said the court looked into two issues, namely the constitutionality of the Act and whether the home minister acted correctly within his jurisdiction to issue the order.

raja petra kamaruddin sentul police station 181108 05 He said Section 8(b) of the ISA indicated that those slapped with the detention order by the minister might not be allowed for judicial review.

However, the court could hear such an application if there were instances of possible abuse of powers.

"I agree the formulation of the ISA was to protect the security of the nation and is constitutional. However, the court can review the detention order if it finds instances where the minister could have acted beyond his jurisdiction to issue the two-year detention order.

Syed Ahmad Helmy said there was no relevance for the minister to issue the order against Raja Petra on the basis of 'mala fide' (bad faith).

"Following this, the court finds there is a procedural non-compliance as stated under Section 8(1) of the ISA.”

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