KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — Over 2,000 Muslims have signed a petition demanding an apology from Malaysiakini over a reader’s comment published by the news portal that they claim mocked their religion.

The comment appeared in the portal’s “Yoursay” section, and allegedly belittled Muslims over Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria’s comments regarding sex in Muslim marriages.

The section curates comments from the news portal’s readers on issues of the day.

In the petition, the Muslims claimed that the particular comment was mischievously titled “Having sex on camel needs gymnastic skills, no?”, made in reference to Harussani’s remarks that Muslim wives were obligated to provide sex to their husbands even upon the backs of camels and another saying that Muslim women should not participate in gymnastics.

The petition started anonymously on June 23 and titled “Malaysians Against Malaysiakini’s Islamophobia” accused the news portal of deliberately allowing Islamic teachings to be ridiculed and that the comment was deliberately “engineered” to insult Islam.

“In publishing the aforementioned column, Malaysiakini had failed to observe due respect towards the Muslim community as well as Islam, the religion of the federation, whose adherents comprised from the large majority of Malaysians of the Malay ethnicity,” read the petition.

The petition goes on to demand that the news portal to retract the specific entry and issue a public apology across all its media platforms.

The offending comment is believed to be based on one written by a user named Abasir.

“Gymnastics not for Muslim women,” said Harussani. Okay, what about sex on a camel? Because that would require gymnastic skills, no? In any case, what do Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz think? They always have opinions, don’t they?” he wrote.

The column was published after Harussani remarked in a recent interview with Astro Awani, that Muslim women should not participate in gymnastics sporting events as it exposes their modesty or aurat.

His statement came at the height of the uproar surrounding the “unIslamic” attire of Malaysian gymnast Farah Ann Abdul Hadi who, despite winning a gold medal at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, was criticised by the Muslim community for her revealing her “aurat”.

In a statement to Malay Mail Online, Malaysiakini chief executive Premesh Chandran said that the section was not representative of the news portal.

“The comments are a reflection of readers’ sentiment and is not a statement of fact and truth, neither is it a reflection of Malaysiakini’s editorial position,” he said.

Premesh added that news portal would also not heed the demands in the petition to retract the column and issue an apology on the matter.