KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has identified all people responsible behind the spread of coordinated messages claiming that the yearly Quran recital and memorisation competition will not be organised this year.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil today confirmed that the MCMC has launched its investigation into those believed to be responsible for the spread of fake news.
He described the action of those spreading false information on the matter as slander with bad intention, not only against the government, but also Islam as well as the Royal institution.
"The MCMC has started its investigation into the spread of the coordinated messages (on the social media) on the national-level Quran recital and memorisation competition.
"All of those responsible for spreading such information have been identified and the MCMC is tracking them down.
"The commission will also call them up to have their statements recorded to facilitate investigation into the case," he told reporters after attending breaking of fast event hosted with enforcement agencies hosted by the MCMC here today.
Yesterday, Fahmi had said the authorities would be launching an investigation to find the source of coordinated messages which falsely claimed that the national Quran recital competition would be cancelled this year.
At a separate event today, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Dr Zulkifli Hasan said changing the dates for the national and international-level Quran Recitation Assembly is not a new thing.
Zulkifli was quoted by Bernama as saying that there were some parties were trying to sensationalise this matter to create a bad perception of the government.
It was reported yesterday that Zuklifli dismissed rumours suggesting that the national and international-level Quran recital and memorisation competition would be absent from the country's calendar of events this year.
In a series of social media postings on X, Zulkifli pointed out that the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has already decided that the annual national-level event this year will take place in Kuantan, Pahang from May 23 until May 28.
The international-level Quran recital and memorisation competition will take place from Oct 5 until Oct 12 at the Kuala Lumpur World Trade Centre here.
