Organiser of the ‘I want to touch a dog’ event Syed Azmi Alhabshi is drowning under thousands of death threats and other hateful messages within hours of holding the controversial event, according to his lawyer, .

“He has been getting severe death threats. It is on his WhatsApp, on his phone, on his Facebook, everywhere…

“Just to give a brief (illustration), I was with him yesterday. Just in a few hours, on his WhatApp unread messages, there were about 1,000, nearly 2,000 (messages),” he said during a press conference today.

They range from threats to break his neck to killing him on sight on the streets, Syahredzan said, and his co-organisers of the event are “extremely concerned” for his safety.

Syahredzan ( right ) said there were also defamatory comments levelled  against Syed Azmi and others involved in the event, which among others alleged that Syed Azmi is a Shiite, or that he is a Christian, or that he was trying to promote liberalism.

Earlier, Syed Azmi had read out apology for the problems caused following the Oct 19 event, and then left immediately citing safety concerns.

Criticism OK but death threats?

“If it were criticism, it wouldn’t be a problem. Debate and discourse can and should happen.

“But when you take it further and you turn to death threats, defamation and all that, that’s where the problem comes and that’s what we are saddened by,” Syahredzan added.

He said Syed Azmi has already lodged a report with the police report and another with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on Oct 22, and both bodies have already launched their investigations.

More police reports will be lodged over the new death threats , Syahredzan said, although there are no plans to sue for the defamatory comments for the time being.

“We are still looking at the situation and if there is a decision (to sue) in the future, that is another story,” he said, while lamenting that some resorted to slander to supposedly defend the sanctity of Islam.

Both Syahredzan and another organising member Norhayati Ismail also told the press conference that the organisers are cooperating with the authorities.

They have already met with the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais), Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (Mais), and will be meeting the Malaysia Islamic Development Department (Jakim) on Nov 6. Jakim had previously said that it would call Syed Azmi for questioning.

“We have nothing to hide and have given the fullest cooperation in this,” said Syahredzan.