Malaysia charges 6 Muslims over cow's head protest.

SHAH ALAM, Malaysia, Sept. 9 Kyodo

Six Malaysian Muslim men were charged with sedition Wednesday for trampling on a severed cow's head during a protest against the construction of a Hindu temple in their neighborhood that has stoked racial and religious tension in this multiethnic country.

The six were also charged with illegal assembly, together with another six men. All 12, aged between 29 and 67, pleaded not guilty and have been freed on bail.

The 12 were among some 50 Malay-Muslims who partipcated in a demonstration Aug. 28 outside the Selangor state government's office in its capital Shah Alam to protest against the government's decision to relocate a Hindu Temple to a Malay-Muslim majority neighborhood in the city.

They threatened bloodshed and kicked and spat at the head of the cow, an animal that is sacred to Hindus.

Some 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million population are Malay-Muslims with the rest comprised mostly of ethnic Chinese and Indians who are mostly Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs.

The Indians who are mostly Hindus were naturally offended. To make matters worse, police arrested 16 Indian activists last week during a peaceful rally to protest against the desecration of their sacred animal.

Questions are being asked as to why the police merely stood by and watched during the Aug. 28 cow's head protest.

Face with mounting pressure, the Attorney-General's Chambers on Monday decided to press charges against the 12. Police only arrested them on Tuesday and brought them to court the next day.

In the Sessions Court during a hearing on bail application for the six charged with sedition, the defense lawyer, Sallehuddin Saidin said, ''My clients did not intend to insult other religion. For the Malays, a cow is a symbol of stupidity and not meant to offend any religion.''

A resident known as Ramzi, who was among some 20 people who turned up at the court in a show of support, told reporters the cow's head was aimed at the state government, not the Hindu community.

The sedition charge carries a penalty of a maximum fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,428) or up to three years in jail or both. If convicted of illegal assembly, the penalty is a fine 2,000 to 10,000 ringgit and a maximum one-year jail term.

Religious sensitivity aside, the incident has taken on wider political ramifications. Selangor is one of the five states out of 13 that the opposition succeeded in taking over following the watershed 2008 election.

The opposition alliance has accused the United Malays National Organization, the lynchpin of the National Front coalition that control the federal government, of instigating the cow's head rally.

UMNO, which has styled itself as the champion of Malay rights, has denied the claims. Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is UMNO chief, said the opposition government has failed to live up to its promises to the people.

''Now when they come to power, they realize that governing is not as simple as whey they were talking as the voice of the opposition,'' he said last Sunday.

But Najib's administration has also come under fire for the probe on independent news portal Malaysiakini for publishing ''offensive content.''

Malaysiakini has been told to take down two video clips -- one on the Aug. 28 protest and the other, the press conference by Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein after he met with residents of neighborhood in question where he defended the protestors by saying, ''They just wanted their voices to be heard.'' Hishamuddin is UMNO vice president.

Cyberspace regulators have also interrogated Malaysiakini journalists and editors.