Malaysia may take pride in its being a moderate, multiracial, and democratic Muslim state, but for the apostate and critics of Islam, it’s a place they should be worried of. Next time you step into their airport, you may be detained and sent back to your Islamic homeland for possible execution.
That’s exactly what has happened to a 23-year-old Saudi blogger and journalist. Journalist Hamza Kashgari, who works for the Jeddah-based Al Bilad newspaper, recently wrote an apparently offensive tweeter message concerning Prophet Muhammad that raised outrage in Saudi Arabia. According to AFP, the message addressed to Muhammad, read:
“I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t understand about you. I will not pray for you.”
This imaginary conversation of Kashgari with Muhammad concerned his frustration over the “oppression of women” in Islam.
As innocuous and ignorable as it is, it caused uproar in Saudi Arabia as it was called blasphemous by clerics, and more than 13,000 supporters have joined a Facebook page, titled “The Saudi People Demand the Execution of Hamza Kashgari”.
The Saudi government quickly ordered for his arrest.
Faced with the direst consequence, Kashgari quickly deleted the post and offered an apology, before making his way out of the country to Malaysia on February 7, 2012. And in the early hours of February 12, as he was leaving the Malaysia on his way to New Zealand, supposedly hoping to seek asylum there, Malaysian authorities arrested him at the Kuala Lumpur airport, obviously for deporting him back to Saudi Arabia.
Human Rights organizations immediately called on Malaysia not to deport him, where he faces execution. Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said:
Saudi clerics have already made up their up mind that Kashgari is an apostate who must face punishment. The Malaysian government should not be complicit in sealing Kashgari’s fate by sending him back.
“If Kashgari is not presumed innocent, he can hardly expect a fair trial if returned to Saudi Arabia,” added Wilcke, “Malaysia should save him from any travesties of justice and allow him to seek safety in a country of his choice.”
But the Malaysian authority, in a hurry, put him on a private plane to Saudi Arabia within about two hours of his arrest at 10 am before his layers could receive a court injunction at 1:30 pm against his deportation. R Kesavan, one of the lawyers, said:
"We managed to get the injunction from High Court Judge Datuk Rohana Yusof at her house… (but) As he is now out of the country, there is nothing more we can do."
As Malaysia, like all other Muslim countries, turns increasingly Islamic, it could never turn down a request from Saudi Arabia, the sacred land of Islam. Therefore, Malaysia is certainly becoming a scary place for critics and apostates of Islam to step in.