A rapper in Muslim-majority Malaysia is under police investigation for allegedly insulting Islam with a Lunar New Year video that features dancers wearing dog masks and performing suggestive moves, reports said yesterday.
The video features controversial rapper Wee Meng Chee (黃明志), known by his stage name Namewee, sitting on a chair in front of a domed building and mimicking barks of canines from around the world.
Several black-clad dancers wearing masks of dogs — an animal considered unclean in Islam — gyrate around him, with two of them mimicking a “doggy-style” sex move.
The video, which marks the start of the Year of the Dog being celebrated across Asia, generated accusations that it was filmed in front of a mosque in the administrative capital Putrajaya.
Malaysian National Police Chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said a probe had been launched into the artist — who is from the country’s ethnic Chinese minority — for hurting religious feelings and “transmitting offensive communications.”
Namewee, who is abroad, faces up to one year in jail if found guilty.
In a YouTube video, the rapper denied having insulted Islam and said that the domed building visible in the background was the Malaysian prime minister’s office, not a mosque.
“The reports saying I insulted Islam are not true,” he said. “We did not film the music video at any place of worship. It was done in an open area.”
The probe was launched after complaints from Muslim groups and criticism from the Malaysian deputy prime minister over the video.
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