Six Malaysian Muslims charged with sedition for parading cow head to protest Hindu temple plan

6 Malaysian Muslims charged with insulting Hindus

SHAH ALAM, Malaysia — Six Malaysian Muslims have been charged with sedition for parading a severed cow’s head to protest the planned construction of a Hindu temple.

The cow is the holiest animal in Hinduism.

The men were charged Wednesday in a district court in Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state, where they had marched with the cow head and stomped on it Aug. 28. They are against the state government’s plan to build a temple in their largely Muslim neighborhood.

Sedition is punishable by up to three years in jail and a fine. The six men were freed on bail pending trial.

Their protest offended Hindus and stoked tensions among Malaysia’s main ethnic groups — the Malay Muslim majority and Chinese and Indian minorities.