Singaporean gets 14-day jail sentence for insulting Islam during JB ride-hailing trip

JOHOR BAHRU: A security guard from Singapore was given a 14-day jail sentence, along with a fine of RM7,000 (approximately S$2,200), on Aug 21 (Friday).

Fifty-six-year-old Mohamed Anim Atam pleaded guilty to insulting Islam in July.

A Shaarmini pronounced the sentence on Mohamed Anim at the Magistrate's Court in Johor Bahru. The magistrate said his sentence would begin from the date of his arrest on Aug 18, which had been carried out by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Johor Bahru Selatan District Police Headquarters, according to reporting from Malaysia’s national news agency Bernama.

The offence

At around 5:00 p.m. on July 30, Mohamed Anim was in an e-hailing vehicle meant to take him from Jalan Tun Razak to Jalan Meldrum. During the course of his ride, he was overheard by the driver, Muhamad Danial Haikal Nadzahakim, 29, making remarks that were insulting to Islam and the Quran, including saying that the latter lacked compassion.

The driver then recorded the remarks and posted the video online, which is over two minutes long, and it quickly went viral. In it, Mr Muhamad Danial can be heard defending Islam, and at one point, even says he would ask the passenger to alight from his car. Before it gets to that point, however, the passenger apologised.

On July 31, a police report was filed against Mohamed Anim. 

After he was arrested on Tuesday at the Sultan Iskandar Building in Bukit Chagar, he was charged with deliberately wounding the religious feelings of another person by uttering words insulting Islam under Section 298 of Malaysia’s Penal Code. 

The Singapore Police assisted with Mohamed Amin’s arrest.

The court was asked for an appropriate sentence by Deputy Public Prosecutor Eizlan Azhar, given that the video of Mohamed Anim’s insulting remarks had gone viral. It also involved religion, one of the three R issues, he added (the others being race and royalty).

Due to a medical condition of high blood pressure, as well as his current divorce proceedings, Mohamed Anim, who did not secure the services of a lawyer, asked the court for a lenient sentence. He explained that his divorce proceedings meant he needed to be present at the Syariah Court in Singapore.

A conviction for the offence could have landed Mohamed Anim in jail for as long as one year, been made to pay a fine, or both. /TISG

Read also: Race, Religion & Royalty laws in focus after 64-year-old jailed in Malaysia