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Police have arrested one more man under a tough security law
for allegedly spreading
rumours of a race riot ahead of independence day celebrations.
A 37-year-old man was detained in Johor, the New Straits Times
reported, where four others
have already been arrested under the Internal Security Act, which
allows them to be held without trial. The men are accused of
sending mobile telephone text messages
which claimed that ethnic violence would break out on Friday,
when Malaysia celebrated its 50th year of independence
from Britain.
“We are firm in tracking down those involved
in the spread ofthese messages,”
acting police chief Mohamad Mokhtar Mohamad Shariff said.
Special task force
Newspaper reports on Friday said police had set a
special task force to investigate
inflammatory messages.
Race relations have become an increasingly
fraught issue in Malaysia,
which has a Muslim majority
but vaunts its multicultural status, with a
series of court cases -
notably on conversions from Islam -
calling that status into question.
Last November, text messages about rumours
that ethnic Muslim Malays would be baptised as
Christians sparked a large Muslim protest in
northern Perak state.
It led to a government warning that the
Internal Security Act could be used on
anyone spreadingtexts which could cause instability.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/71872
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Malaysian politics