“Bruno” – following Baron Cohen’s hit “Borat” – is centered around the adventures of a flamboyant gay fashion journalist from Austria. An official from Malaysia’s Film Censorship Board said the movie was considered unacceptable because of its story line, offensive language, jokes and racy nature. She declined to be named, citing protocol.

“It’s banned because the story is based on gay life … There are a lot of sex scenes,” she said. “It’s contrary to our culture.”

Gay sex, or “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” is punishable by up to 20 years in jail and whipping in Malaysia. Sex toys, politically incorrect comments and jokes about religion also irked the censors, she said.

She said censors vetted the movie last month, and the distributor was notified. Ukraine has also banned the film, and some Austrian officials have spoken out against it, but have not taken action. Baron Cohen’s previous movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” made fun of the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan and the United States and was banned in Kazakhstan and Russia.

Malaysia also decided in early September to ban another American hit, the horror film “Halloween II,” because of its gory scenes and excessive violence, the official said. The distributor was informed and can appeal the decision.

A Muslim-majority nation of 28 million people, Malaysia has strict public morality rules, including those applying to entertainment. U.S. R&B star Beyonce Knowles, who is scheduled to perform here on Oct. 25, has promised to wear conservative attire for the show.

Malaysia has just joined the Ukraine, Lebanon and the Bahamas in banning Bruno – the gay sexcapade/ insightful look at homophobia in America. I am a great defender of Bruno and understand that the film – made to shock American sense- was likely not going to receive a huge welcome from many international audiences.

That said, how crazy that Malaysia bans this movie, not because of the graphic nudity, not because of the language or sex scenes, but because it is based on gay life and contrary to the culture?

That just seems like a bad pr move to me.

Malaysia is a country where being gay is outlawed, but the reality is there are a number of gay pockets that live without the kind of persecution common in other predominantly Muslim countries. Couldn’t they refuse to inflame the issue more by using the graphic sex excuse and closing debate.

It is yet another example of how politicians are more than willing to engage in and inflame the debate about gay rights – using it as a galvanizing point for the more conservative and a polarizing force, both in Malaysia… and in the U.S.

From Bernama.com:

Avoiding masturbation and homosexual activities are among preventive measures one could take against Influenza A (H1N1), according to an eminent practitioner of complimentary therapy.

Dr. V. M. Palaniappan said that such activities caused the body to develop friction heat which in turn, produced acid and made the body hyperacidised.

“Thus, the body becomes an easy target for H1N1 infection,” he told Bernama, emphasising however, that normal sexual union between members of the opposite sex was absolutely safe.

Homosexual sex is illegal in Malaysia, an Islamic country; sodomy can lead to 20 years in prison. In two states, the punishment is death. In 1994, the country banned any open gay or lesbian from appearing in the state-controlled media. In 2001, the Prime Minister announced it would deport any foreign diplomats learned to be gay.

Police said the clubs were operating behind legitimate businesses and were uncovered during a routine vice blitz in a seedy part of town. The city is popular with foreign tourists.

Vice officers said one of the clubs was operating in a traditional massage parlor; three others were “disguised” as fitness clubs.

Police said that in several of the early morning raids, they found men engaged in sex. In others they found “evidence sex had occurred.” They said that officers found gay pornography, condoms and sex toys in four of the locations.

Those arrested were booked and released on bail after being given court dates. They are charged with gross indecency and if convicted would be subject to floggings and up to 20 years in prison.

Those charged are between the ages of 20 and 50, police said.

Last year, police in the capital Kuala Lumpur charged 37 men with gross indecency after a raid on what was described as a gay sex club. They were sentenced to be lashed and then freed.

Malaysia’s anti-sodomy law dates back to British colonial times.  The country’s Muslim majority has steadfastly refused to repeal the law.

The National Fatwa Council forbade the practice of girls behaving or dressing like boys during a meeting Thursday in northern Malaysia, said Harussani Idris Zakaria, the mufti of northern Perak state, who attended the gathering.

Harussani said an increasing number of Malaysian girls behave like tomboys, and that some of them engage in homosexuality. Homosexuality is not explicitly banned in Malaysia, but it is effectively illegal under a law that prohibits sex acts “against the order of nature.”

Harussani said the council’s ruling was not legally binding because it has not been passed into law, but that tomboys should be banned because their actions are immoral.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a law or not. When it’s wrong, it’s wrong. It is a sin,” Harussani told The Associated Press. “Tomboy (behavior) is forbidden in Islam.”

Under the edict, girls are forbidden to sport short hair and dress, walk and act like boys, Harussani said. Boys should also not act like girls, he said.

“They must respect God. God created them as boys, they must behave like boys. God created them as girls, they must act like girls,” he said.

Council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin said the ruling was prompted by recent cases of young women behaving like men and indulging in homosexuality, according to the national news agency Bernama. He did not elaborate.

Malaysian media have reported on recent incidents of school bullying among girls, which have been caught on film and circulated on the Internet. In one film, some girls are seen beating up another girl in a bathroom.

A well-known Malaysian Muslim actress caused an uproar last year when she shaved her head bald for a film. Harussani and other muftis urged Muslims not to watch the movie, arguing that the actress had violated Islam by making herself look like a man.

“Muallaf,” or “the convert,” is scheduled for release in Singapore next month, but no date has been set for its release in Malaysia.

Muslims make up some 60 per cent of Malaysia’s 27 million people, and are subject to Islamic laws and the council’s edicts, even if the rulings have not been enshrined in national or Shariah law.

It was not immediately clear what kind of punishment awaited those who violate the tomboy edict, or “fatwa.” Malays generally follow the council’s “fatwas” out of deference, but violators rarely get into trouble unless the edict is incorporated into national or Shariah law.

Hours after he was sworn in, Anwar staged a walkout to protest proposed legislation that critics say is meant to bolster a new sodomy case against him.

Anwar says his alliance is on track to topple the government by Sept. 16 with defections from the governing National Front coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since its independence from Britain in 1957.

“I am glad to be back after a decade. I really feel vindicated. I feel great,” Anwar said on Thursday.

Anwar was forced to resign his Parliament seat in 1999 amid a sodomy allegation and was jailed for six years after he was convicted of corruption and sodomizing his family driver. The sodomy conviction was overturned by Malaysia’s top court in 2004.

A special election was held Tuesday after his wife vacated her seat, which she had held for two terms during Anwar’s political exile. He regained the seat in a landslide victory.

Anwar’s triumph came on the heels of big gains by the opposition in the March general elections that loosened the governing National Front’s 51-year grip on power.

The Front returned to power with a simple majority of 140 seats in the 222-member house. Anwar’s People’s Alliance coalition increased its strength from 19 to 82 seats and needs 30 more to form a government.

“Anwar – whatever we think of him and many of us are deeply skeptical – is looking more and more like our future prime minister,” columnist Karim Raslan wrote in The Star daily on Thursday. “There is a mounting sense of inevitability to his impending succession.”

Tuesday’s election also was a gauge of public anger against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration, which the opposition has painted as corrupt, inefficient and uncaring toward minorities.

The opposition promises to scrap Malaysia’s decades-old system of preferences for ethnic Malays. The government says that would jeopardize the country’s unity.

Within hours of being sworn in on Thursday, Anwar led the opposition in a walkout to protest a proposed law that would make it mandatory for criminal suspects to provide DNA samples.

Critics say the law is meant to target Anwar, who has been accused of sodomizing a 23-year-old male aide in a case separate from the 1999 one.

Anwar has dismissed the allegation as a “sickening” government conspiracy to prevent his rise to prime minister and has refused to give a DNA sample to police, saying he fears it would be tampered with.

A court will hear his case on Sept. 10 to set a date for the trial. Under Malaysian law, even consensual sodomy is punishable by up to 20 years in jail if convicted.

On Thursday, Home Minister Syed Hamid’s closing speech on the DNA legislation debate was interrupted numerous times by heckling opposition lawmakers.

Just as Syed Hamid was finishing his speech, Anwar led all opposition members in a walkout, watched by stunned government lawmakers. He told reporters that the opposition had demanded the setting up of a select committee to study the bill first.

“We have walked out because they have refused to respond” to the request, he said. “So there’s no point in staying and participating in this debate.”

The official count showed Anwar has taken an unbeatable lead in Tuesday’s election, defeating the governing coalition’s candidate.

Anwar’s re-entry into parliament would formally complete the political rehabilitation of a man who was fired as deputy prime minister in 1998 and jailed for six years after he was convicted of corruption and sodomizing his family driver.

Anwar calls the latest sodomy charges against him “most sickening” and a homophobic politically motivated attack.

Anwar was accused last month of sodomizing his male aide, who filed a police complaint after being examined at two hospitals, first at the Pusrawi Hospital and then at the government’s Kuala Lumpur General Hospital.

Anwar – who has consistently denied this sodomy allegation, the second against him in a decade – says he is a victim of a political conspiracy by the government to stop him from seizing power.

On Tuesday, Anwar cited a purported Pusrawi Hospital medical report, published by several news portals on the Internet, in which the doctor who examined the 23-year-old aide wrote he found no evidence of sodomy. The hospital confirmed Wednesday the report was authentic.

“It looks genuine,” said Kamaruddin Ahmad, the medical director of the partly government-owned Pusrawi Hospital. But he told reporters that a sodomy examination must be done by a specialist.

The new accusation surfaced as Anwar seeks to unseat the government.

Anwar plans to contest a by-election in a northern state in a bid to return to Parliament about 10 years after his rising career was shattered by sodomy and corruption allegations. He is believed to be nurturing ambitions to be Malaysia’s next prime minister.

Anwar’s accuser went to the hospital on June 28, complaining of a stomach ache and a painful anus, and was examined by a general practitioner who is a Myanmar national but “not qualified to make any conclusions on sodomy.”

He suggested the patient go to the government hospital and file a police report.

The accuser went to the government hospital for a second examination. It is not clear what transpired there, but the accuser filed a complaint at a police station against Anwar the same day.

Anwar is currently out on bail after being arrested on suspicion of committing sodomy, which punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

He was barred from contesting general elections in March – when his coalition made spectacular gains – because of a previous corruption conviction. The ban expired in April.

He was also charged with sodomy in 1998, but that charge was overturned in 2004.

(Kuala Lumpur) Malaysian police arrested opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday on suspicion that he sodomized a male aide, pre-empting his voluntary appearance at the police headquarters to answer the allegation.

The arrest was likely to exacerbate the political divisions and tensions that have been running high in Malaysia since the opposition made unprecedented gains in the March general elections to whittle away the ruling coalition’s strength in Parliament.

Anwar has denied the sodomy accusation – made in a police complaint by the 23-year-old male aide last month – calling it a political conspiracy by the government to snuff out his campaign to bring the opposition to power by September.

About a dozen policemen, some of them wearing ski masks, cordoned off the road leading to Anwar’s house and stopped his car, said his lawyer Sankara Nair. He said Anwar was arrested for suspected sodomy.

Anwar was bundled into a police car with dark tinted windows and driven to the police headquarters where scores of supporters, including opposition lawmakers and his wife, Azizah Ismail, gathered.

After eight hours of interrogation, he was taken to a hospital for a medical examination, said Saiful Izham Ramli, another of Anwar’s lawyers. It was not clear why he needed to undergo an exam, he said, adding that Anwar would later be returned to police headquarters.

Meanwhile, the crowd of supporters milled around on sidewalks and on the main street, which was closed to traffic, while a heavy police presence including water cannons kept a close watch. There was no violence.

“This is not a criminal case but a political case,” said Azmin Ali, the vice president of Anwar’s People’s Justice Party, adding that the arrest was “outrageous and very uncivilized.”

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the police had acted within the law.

Criminal Investigation Department chief Mohamad Bakri Zinin said in a statement that Anwar was “safe under police custody.” Zinin refused to answer questions.

Nair said he expects Anwar to be charged under a law that makes sodomy, even between consenting adults, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in jail. Anwar can be held in custody for up to 14 days as a suspect without charge.

His wife Azizah said she is apprehensive because Anwar has a bad back. She said Anwar told him in a telephone conversation that police were “not gentle” with him.

The arrest was made at about 1 p.m. as Anwar was returning home from the administrative capital of Putrajaya. He had told reporters there that he would go to the police headquarters at 2 p.m., the deadline set by the police, and give them “my fullest cooperation.”

Deputy Home Minister Wan Farid Wan Salleh said police moved in because they learned he was heading home and suspected he would not make the deadline.

“He was arrested because there is a warrant of arrest, so the police executed the warrant,” Wan Farid told The Associated Press.

The current drama recalled a similar charge Anwar faced in 1998 when he was deputy prime minister and finance minister. The accusation led to his dismissal from the government and subsequent conviction and imprisonment. His downfall led to massive street protests by his supporters for weeks.

Malaysia’s Supreme Court later overturned the conviction, but by then Anwar had served six years in jail on a related abuse of power charge. He was freed in 2004, when he revived his political career as an opposition leader.

“There is no basis for this whole fabrication and malicious attacks. It is just a repeat of the 1998 script. You can see the pattern,” Anwar said in Putrajaya.

The sodomy accusation has hampered his campaign to topple the government, which suffered badly at the hands of his three-party People’s Alliance in the March 8 general elections.

The ruling National Front coalition, which has traditionally enjoyed a two-thirds majority, now has only a 30-seat advantage over the opposition. Anwar’s charisma and strategic skills were credited with boosting the opposition’s strength in the 222-member Parliament from 19 to 82 seats.

U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia James Keith said in a statement that the arrest of a prominent opposition figure, “raises serious questions and concerns.”

“We urge Malaysian authorities to resolve this matter in a manner that enhances confidence in the rule of law in Malaysia,” he said.