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The Cow head protests were held in front of the Selangor state government headquarters at the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Building, Shah Alam, Malaysia on 28 August 2009. The protest was called so because the act of a few participants who brought along a cow head, which they later desecrated. The cow is considered a sacred animal to Hindus. The protest was held due to Selangor state government's intention to relocate a Hindu temple from Section 19 residential area of Shah Alam to Section 23. The protesters were mainly Muslim who opposed the relocation because Section 23 was a Muslim majority area. On 28 August 2009, a group of 50 or so Malaysian Muslims marched from the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque to the Selangor state government headquarters at the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Building with the head of a cow – an animal deemed sacred in Hinduism – and "stomped on the head and spat on it before leaving the site".〔 The protest leaders were also recorded saying there would be blood if a temple was constructed in Shah Alam.〔(Malaysia Muslims protest proposed Hindu temple ) Associated Press – 28 August 2009〕 The protest was caught on video by the popular Malaysian online news portal ''Malaysiakini''.〔(Temple demo: Residents march with cow's head ) YouTube. 28 August 2009〕 ==UMNO and Barisan Nasional response== Malaysia’s Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein defended the protest, arguing that building a Hindu shrine is unsuitable because the neighbourhood is Muslim, and that “the residents only wanted their voices to be heard () it was unfortunate that 'the publicity they received was negative because it was linked with racial and religious sentiments.'" In response, Hishammuddin invited the protesters to a discussion. In a press conference later, Hishammuddin defended the actions of the protesters saying that they cannot be blamed. He cited several reasons:〔(Holy cow! Minister defends protesters ) Malaysiakini. 9 September 2009〕 * Although the demonstration was illegal & without a government-issued permit, the protesters had limited the size of their demonstration * The state government had made a poor decision in relocating the Hindu temple * The people should be allowed space to voice their opinions * Similar incidents have happened before (pig heads being thrown into UMNO grounds) The press conference which was also recorded by Malaysiakini, was almost as controversial as the protest; opposition politicians came out to denounce the Minister's actions and called for his resignation. Embarrassingly for Hishammuddin, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the government multimedia agency, sent a letter to Malaysiakini.com appealing for it to take down both videos of the cow head protests and the press conference by the minister. This has been interpreted by some as damage control by the government due to Hishammuddin's embarrassing press conference.〔(MCMC tells Malaysiakini: Take down videos ) Malaysiakini. 9 September 2009〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2009 Cow's Head Protests」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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