Eric Paulsen lodges report over death threats from "Friday sermon" tweet

PETALING JAYA: Human rights lawyer Eric Paulsen lodged a police report over death threats he received over a tweet in which he allegedly accused Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) of promoting extremism.

Paulsen, who lodged a police report at the police headquarters here, said he received several threats via Twitter and instant messaging application Whatsapp over the weekend when he was in his office.

“I take these threats very seriously as they are part of a malicious slander campaign accusing me of insulting Islam. These are false accusations,” he said.

“I only criticised Jakim, a government agency. I never referred to Islam in my tweet,” added Paulsen, who urged police to investigate the threats.

Paulsen, a co-founder and executive director of Lawyers for Liberty, had come under fire over the tweet: “Jakim is promoting extremism every Friday. Government needs to address that if serious about extremism in Malaysia.”

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 Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has said the comment would be investigated under the Sedition Act.