GEORGE TOWN: Police arrested a khatib, or preacher, over allegations that he criticised Putrajaya and the police for the mass arrest of Penang’s Voluntary Patrol Unit (PPS) members last week.

George Town police chief ACP Mior Faridalatrash Wahid confirmed that the preacher, Abu Bakar, was arrested after he turned up for questioning at the district police headquarters at 11.30am yesterday.

He is being investigated under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948 for allegedly uttering seditious words, Mior said.

A police report was lodged against the preacher by a PAS member on Sept 5 after he heard the remarks made by the preacher during a Friday sermon delivered at Masjid Acheh Kebun Lama in Jalan Terengganu in Penang.

In his report, the PAS member alleged that Abu Bakar had in his sermon expressed support for the PPS while hitting out at the government and police.

“In my opinion, the khatib had insulted the government and the police,” the PAS member said in the report lodged at the George Town district police headquarters.

“The way he made the remarks was as if he was inciting the jemaah [congregation] to hate the government and the police.”

Mior said the preacher was called to give his statement.

The move comes in the wake of the arrest of another Muslim preacher, Wan Ji Wan Husin, under the Sedition Act in Shah Alam, Selangor on Wednesday. — The Malaysian Insider


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 12, 2014.