The Malaysian police have arrested a Saudi Arabian newspaper columnist who fled Saudi Arabia after he was accused of insulting Islam, police sources said on Friday.

The sources said the police have picked up the suspect as he landed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday with the help of the Interpol.

The columnist, Hamza Kashgari outraged tens of thousands of Saudi Arabians after he posted an article that insulted Islam through social networking websites on a Prophet Muhammad's birthday commemoration last week.

Thousands of scholars, students and online users infuriated by the man's "open sacrilege" had filed lawsuits against him, urging authorities to prosecute him.

Blasphemy is a crime punishable by execution under Saudi Arabia 's Islamic sharia law.

The Saudi embassy in Kuala Lumpur said it has yet to receive any official notification of Hamza's arrest.