Marina Mahathir has demanded that the Muslim group claiming she is the mastermind behind the human rights coalition Comango publicly retracts its allegation or face legal action.

"Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma), in a flyer distributed at mosques throughout the country during prayers on Friday, Nov 8, accused me of being one of the ' dalang ' (masterminds) behind Comango.

NONE "This is wholly untrue. Although I am a board member of Sisters in Islam (SIS), one of the NGOs in the coalition, I was not involved in any way in the Comango ( left ) process," Marina said in a statement today.

Comango has earned the wrath of Muslim pressure groups for submitting a critical human rights report to the United Nations' Universal Periodical Review (UPR) in Geneva last month.

Among the issues that irked the Islamic pressure groups were those related to human rights for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transexuals ( LGBTs ), freedom of religion and other gender and children's rights issues.

The coalition of 54 NGOs responded to the critics, saying that their legitimate human rights concerns had been distorted by lobbyists to paint the coalition as threatening Islam.

Isma continues to flame Comango

Last Friday, Isma distributed 70,000 flyers in mosques nationwide to "expose the masterminds" behind the coalition.

The flyers were titled 'The Dangers of Comango' and in their statement that day, Isma named a whole list of prominent NGO leaders including Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan, and even Parti Sosialis Malaysia's secretary-general S Arutchelvan.

NONE Curiously, Malaysiakini 's CEO Premesh Chandran was also named as one of the "dalang".

In its statement, Isma continued to allege that Comango was promoting the "freedom for LGBT" and "freedom of apostasy".

Marina said Isma's allegation against her was "defamatory" and has demanded Isma and its office-bearers withdraw their allegation "immediately, with a public clarification in all the media, including social media, on my terms".

The daughter of former long-serving prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad also targeted the media that reported the allegation to clarify.

"I also view very seriously the republication of Isma's flyer in various media, both mainstream and online, and regard this also as defamatory.

NONE "I therefore request that all media publish my clarification immediately as well or also face legal action," she said.

Meanwhile responding to being named as one of the "masterminds", Malaysiakini CEO Chandran ( right ) while denying being involved with Comango, said, "I wish I had more time to do human rights work. It's extremely important. Unfortunately, Malaysiakini keeps me far too busy."

He also said he believed the UPR process has not been very effective.

"Governments should take pride in improving human rights and see it has a central part of development, rather than something external, that should be kept out," he added.