Malaysian lawyer in police custody over anti-Islamic tweet

A human rights lawyer in Malaysia has been arrested for alleging that the muslim majority country's top Islamic body was promoting "extremism every Friday".
Eric Paulsen was arrested last night in Brickfields, Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar tweeted.
Paulsen was brought before the court where the magistrate remanded him to police custody for two days to facilitate investigations over the comments he allegedly made about extremism during 'Friday sermons'.
Lawyers for Liberty (LfL) executive director Paulsen had come under fire in this Muslim majority multi-ethnic country over a tweet he posted: "Malaysia Islamic Development Department (Jakim) is promoting extremism every Friday."

"Government needs to address that if serious about extremism in Malaysia," Paulsen had said.
Earlier, he lodged a report at the police headquarters here over death threats he received over the tweet.

Paulsen said he received several threats via Twitter and instant messaging application Whatsapp over the weekend.
Malaysia's 28 million population comprises 60 per cent Malays who are all Muslims. There are 8 per cent ethnic Indians mostly Tamil Hindus and 25 per cent ethnic Chinese who are mostly Christians or Buddhists.
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had said that action should be taken against Paulsen over his statement.

"The relevant authorities should investigate Paulsen's statement and appropriate action be taken as many non-Muslims do not understand what Islam really is," he said yesterday.
"Islam is not an extremist religion, (and) since when have our people (Malaysians) acted extraordinarily? Islam is the most moderate religion," he said.
Paulsen had said he took the threats very seriously as "they are part of a malicious slander campaign accusing me of insulting Islam. These are false accusations".
I only criticised Jakim, a government agency. I never referred to Islam in my tweet," he said.
After receiving backlash from netizens, Paulsen clarified that he did not mean to insult Islam when he accused Jakim of promoting extremism.

The tweet has since been taken down. Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar has said the comment would be investigated under the Sedition Act.