The New Straits Times has apologised to Australian senator Nicholas Xenophon over its report that said he made an anti-Islam speech in Australia's Parliament in 2009.
In a statement published on the NST website today, the daily said it had made a "grave error" in publishing the statements in the article.
"We accept that in his speech in the Australian Parliament referred to in the article, Mr Xenophon did not use the word 'Islam' and neither did he assert that Islam is not a religious organisation nor a criminal organisation hiding behind its religious belief.
"For the above reason, we hereby retract all the statements contained in the article against Mr Xenophon and unreservedly and unconditionally apologise to him for any distress or embarrassment caused by the article.
"As a further mark of our contrition, we have also removed the article from our online version of the newspaper with immediate effect," reads the statement.
In a statement published on the NST website today, the daily said it had made a "grave error" in publishing the statements in the article.
"We accept that in his speech in the Australian Parliament referred to in the article, Mr Xenophon did not use the word 'Islam' and neither did he assert that Islam is not a religious organisation nor a criminal organisation hiding behind its religious belief."For the above reason, we hereby retract all the statements contained in the article against Mr Xenophon and unreservedly and unconditionally apologise to him for any distress or embarrassment caused by the article.
"As a further mark of our contrition, we have also removed the article from our online version of the newspaper with immediate effect," reads the statement.
In its May 2 article headed 'Observer under scrutiny', the NSTreported that Xenophon had told Australia's Parliament:
"What we are seeing is a worldwide pattern of abuse and criminality. On the body of evidence, this is not happening by accident; it is happening by design.
"Islam is not a religious organisation. It is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs."
Xenophon: Attempt to discredit me
The article also said that Xenophon supported same sex marriages.
However, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) in a report today said Xenophon did not utter the word "Islam" and that the subject of his criticism was Scientology.
SMH said the word "Scientology" was replaced with "Islam" in theNST report in order to discredit Xenophon, who is a friend of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.
"He told the SMH last night that the word switch was an example of the kind of dirty tricks the ruling party employs and had used against (Anwar)," reads the report.
Xenophon was among several foreign observers at the Bersih 3.0 rally. He was highly critical of the local media coverage and police reaction to the rally participants.
He was part of an international seven-member team on a three-day fact-finding mission on Malaysia's electoral system. They were commissioned by Anwar, as parliamentary opposition leader.
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