KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Malaysian police have
arrested a Saudi Arabian columnist who fled his country after
making comments on Twitter deemed insulting to the Prophet
Mohammad, prompting a surge of online outrage and calls for his
execution.
"It is confirmed that Malaysian police have detained the
Saudi writer. This arrest was part of an Interpol operation
which the Malaysian police were a part of," a police spokesman
told Reuters on Friday.
He gave no further details and would not comment on whether
the writer, Hamza Kashgari, would be extradited to Saudi Arabia,
where some Islamic clerics have called for him to be put to
death for his comments.
Malaysia is a majority Muslim country with a close affinity
with many Middle Eastern nations through their shared religion.
The Southeast Asian nation is also a U.S. ally and a leading
global voice for moderate Islam, meaning that any decision to
extradite Kashgari certain to be controversial.
Blasphemy is a crime punishable by execution under oil-rich
Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law. It
is not a capital crime in Malaysia.
The 23-year-old Kashgari reportedly posted the comments on
his Twitter feed to mark the Prophet Mohammad's birthday on
Saturday, drawing thousands of outraged comments on Twitter and
other social networking sites.
Reuters could not verify Kashgari's comments because he
later deleted them, but media reported that one them reflected
his contradictory views of the Prophet.
Kashgari later said in an interview that he was being made a
"scapegoat for a larger conflict" over his comments.
"I view my actions as part of a process toward freedom,"
Kashgari was quoted as saying in the interview with the Daily
Beast website.
"I was demanding my right to practice the most basic human
rights - freedom of expression and thought - so nothing was done
in vain."
(Reporting by Stuart Grudgings and Niluksi Koswanage, Editing
by Jonathan Thatcher)
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