The Malaysian Insight

MALAY rights group Perkasa wants The Star, an English national daily, to be suspended for its “distasteful” front page, which touched on Muslim sensitivities in the country.

Perkasa women’s wing chief Foziah Nawawi said the Home Ministry should suspend the English daily for a year for being insensitive towards Muslims.

“At least if not a year, then through the holy month of Ramadan. Saying sorry is no longer enough as this is not the first time The Star has offended Muslims,” she said.

Foziah was speaking to the media at the Home Ministry office in Putrajaya this afternoon.

Four senior editors from The Star were called to the Home Ministry this morning to give their statements regarding the paper’s Saturday front page, which was criticised by some as insensitive to Muslims.

The four representatives – executive editors Rozaid Abdul Rahman, Brian Martin and N. Dorairaj, as well as specialist editor M. Shanmugam – were seen entering the ministry’s building in Putrajaya before noon, according to the Malay-language Utusan Malaysia daily.

Ministry secretary-general Alwi Ibrahim had said the daily was careless in posting a picture of people performing their tarawih prayers below a report headlined “Malaysian terrorist leader”.

Editor-in-chief Leanne Goh is away in the United States.

Politicians from various parties had criticised the MCA-owned newspapers’ front page, which they said gave the impression that all Muslims were terrorists.

The Star today issued an apology on its front page, saying on hindsight, it should have been more sensitive to the feelings of its Muslim readers.

“It has been the practice of The Star to respect the first day of Ramadan every year and to place the picture of Muslims at the first tarawih prayer on the front page of the paper.

“This has been done over the last decade or so.

“This year, there was an unfortunate coincidence of the lead story being of a terrorist leader which led to many linking the headline and the picture, which was never the intention of the newspaper.

“We sincerely apologise for the error of judgment on our part,” it said in a statement yesterday.

Foziah said the newspaper had gotten away before with an apology after publishing a photograph of singer Erykah Badu with the Arabic word for “Allah” tattooed on the body in 2012.

“And they seem to have not learned their lesson. For a newspaper belonging to a BN (Barisan Nasional) component party, it should have known better,” she said.

“There were also a photo of a half-naked woman getting a massage beneath the photograph of Muslims performing tarawih prayers,” said Foziah.

She said although other newspapers, such as Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times, also used a similar photograph, their front pages had more than one headline.

“Muslims are angry,” she added.

Alwi did not reply to The Malaysian Insight’s calls and text messages. – May 29, 2017.