KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia has decided to suspend the publishing licence of a daily newspaper after it published the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have enraged Muslims worldwide, the New Straits Times said on Thursday.
The Sarawak Tribune ran the caricatures last weekend to illustrate a story on its inside pages about the global fury in what it called an "oversight" by a non-Muslim night editor.
The incident embarrassed the mainly Muslim country’s government, which is headed by an Islamic scholar who currently chairs the world’s largest grouping of Islamic nations, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
"Cabinet members ... unanimously agreed with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that the reproduction of the offensive cartoons was a serious offence which demanded stern action from the government," the New Straits Times said.
The suspension is pending the outcome of an investigation by the Internal Security Ministry, the newspaper said.
The publisher of the Sarawak Tribune was not immediately available for comment. Spokesmen for the Internal Security Ministry and Information Ministry said they could not comment on the report and had not been briefed on any such decision.
Tens of thousands of Muslims have demonstrated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa over the cartoons, first published in Denmark, then other countries in Europe and elsewhere.
One caricature showed the Prophet Mohammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Many Muslims consider any portrayal of their Prophet as blasphemous, let alone one showing him as a terrorist.
The Sarawak Tribune is published in the eastern state of Sarawak on Borneo island. It is one of the few Malaysian states where Muslims are in a minority.
