A Malaysian rapper has been detained for allegedly insulting Islam in his latest music video.
Wee Meng Chee, popularly known as Namewee, was detained at Kuala Lumpur's airport as he returned from abroad.
Police on Monday obtained a court order to hold the 33-year-old ethnic Chinese singer for four days to investigate him on suspicion of "defiling a place of worship with intention to insult religion.''
The video, Oh My God, was released last month and features Wee rapping in front of places of worship and using the word "Allah," which means God in the Malay language. Enraged Malay Islamic activists lodged police complaints against Wee, who said the video was meant to promote religious harmony.
Namewee did not have a lawyer in court and he did not make a plea at the hearing or comment to reporters.
The offence carries a penalty of up to two years in jail, a fine, or both.
It is not the first time the Malaysian has courted controversy.
He was widely accused of mocking the country when, as a student in Taiwan in 2007, he posted a video titled Negarakuku - a play on the title of the national anthem, Negaraku, and the Hokkien-language word for penis.
He was investigated by police for sedition when he returned home a year later. He apologised for the video.
Malaysia is sensitive about communal relations in a society made up of majority ethnic Malays, who are Muslim, and sizeable ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian minorities, many of whom are Buddhist, Christian or Hindu.
An amendment to the colonial era Sedition Act last year also made any act of "insulting or ridiculing" any religion a criminal offence.
