‘You and your family must die’: Malaysian director hit by death threats as culture war escalates
- Khairi Anwar’s film Mentega Terbang was accused of promoting apostasy and pulled off Hong Kong-based streaming platform Viu
- Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil condemns attack on Khairi and actor Arjun Thanaraju, urges Malaysians not to take matters into their own hands
Observers say Malaysia is sinking into a culture war driven by Malay Muslim politicians and Islamist conservatives, who are pouncing on local films, music and performers they deem to be in contravention of Islamic values.
Director Khairi Anwar is the latest figure to face conservative outrage after his film Mentega Terbang was accused of promoting apostasy.
Early on Thursday he found his car trashed and splashed with paint and what appeared to be a corrosive acid. Messages on pieces of A4 paper said: “Mentega Terbang, don’t challenge Islam”, “Islam shall rise”, and “you and your family must die”.
Khairi told This Week in Asia he was informed of the attack by the management of his housing estate which noticed the blotches of red and black paint on his white Toyota sedan.
“I am doing okay now, but my wife was shaken,” Khairi said.
The director said he also received a text message from the alleged assailant telling him not to insult Islam, and threatening to have him run down on the road “next time”.
A car belonging to Arjun Thanaraju, an actor in the film, was also targeted with a similar attack.
The director lodged a police report at the Kajang district police station, southeast of the capital Kuala Lumpur. Police have yet to comment on the incident.
The 104-minute film revolves around a young Malay Muslim girl who comes to terms with losing her terminally ill mother through researching what other religions say about life after death.
Initially released in 2021 to a limited audience, the controversy over the film started in early March after it was screened on Hong Kong-based streaming platform Viu, which later pulled it down following the controversy in Malaysia.
The incident happened just days after Khairi and Arjun were in Kuala Lumpur to give statements over the film.
They have also given their statements to the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia and are awaiting a date to meet the Islamic Religious Department of the Federal Territory, the Islamic governance authority.
Commenting on the attack, Khairi said his critics were continuing to post inflammatory messages on social media, including conservative filmmaker Zabidi Mohamed who wrote that “we cannot keep quiet or take a ‘play safe’ attitude” on Thursday, alongside a quote urging Muslims not to let Islam be insulted.
“This is causing danger to myself, my family, and my cast and crew’s well-being,” Khairi said. “But none of the ministers, ministries, authorities, are stopping this danger put on us.”
Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil on Thursday urged Malaysians not to take the law into their own hands following the incident.
“I strongly condemn these threats and any illegal actions,” he said in a tweet. “Malaysians must obey the law, do not take actions that can damage property or threaten lives. Follow the law, don’t take matters into your own hands.”
Flak for their fiction: Malaysian films face conservatives’ fury in culture war
Malaysian authorities had earlier distanced themselves from the straight-to-streaming film, with Fahmi alluding that the filmmakers had crossed the line in his response to it on March 6.
“I want to remind everyone that even if we want to be filmmakers, we still have laws that apply to any work we produce, so we have to respect those laws,” Fahmi said.
Last week’s Women’s March across downtown Kuala Lumpur similarly stirred anger from Malaysia’s vocal conservative base who called it an LGBT rally after photos of marchers waving the rainbow flag were uploaded on social media.
