Anti-Christian hate page fires up Netizens
By Lydia Gomez | Yahoo Newsroom – 2 hours 27 minutes ago
Note from Bestfbkl:
About the same time this story below was being published I got in touch with with Dato Mohamed Sharil Mohamed Tarmizi , Chairman of MCMC who took this matter seriously and he informed me that at 6.13pm through their follow up discussion with Facebook this page was removed completely.
Does this page look offensive to you?
To scores of Malaysians, it did. And their collective disgust for this page - set up with the sole intent of insulting anything held sacred by the Christian community - resulted in it 'disappearing'.
Titled 'Harimau Malaya Anti-Kristian Sabah Sarawak', the page was created on September 23 with 185 'likes' since then. The numbers don't show popularity but each of the posts made on this page generated enough buzz to have it become inaccessible on Oct 7.
Talk about nipping it in the bud.
Given the obviously inflammatory nature of the page, it was heartwarming to see of Malaysians - across religious beliefs - launching a barrage of complaints against its administrator.
A quick check on the page - Harimau Malaya Anti Kristian Sabah Sarawak- showed that all its posts were a direct attack on Christianity.
Anyone who had clicked on the link to the page would have immediately seen a profile image of 'Mr Bean' superimposed on a famous image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. Its cover photo showed two dogs mating, with the face of a crucified Christ superimposed on one of the canines.
A separate image showed three people - a man dressed as a priest and two scantily-clad women using headgears worn by nuns - smoking, gambling and stripping.
Another image bore the words "Jesus hanya manusia biasa yang tak berdaya krisetan [sic] hanya sampah bangkai anjing' (Jesus is only a helpless mortal, Christianity is just a dogs carcass).
Facebook users who had earlier reported the page as offensive were given the message that the page or its posts did not violate the social network's 'community standards'.
One photo however, was removed. The page itself appeared to have disappeared at the time of publishing.
Yahoo! Malaysia called the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to ask if they would be taking action against the inflammatory Facebook page, but were told by its Strategic Communications Director Sheikh Raffie And Rahman that it was up to Facebook to remove the page and that the national cyber watchdog would take time to nail the culprits.
"It has only 185 likes. There's no issue. Anything that contravenes the laws, report to Facebook and the police. Don't like or follow the pages. Continue reporting to Facebook," he told us.
Sheikh Raffie said the MCMC took this matter seriously, but wants the public to stop sharing content from offensive pages.
"You will find all these things. You can't get rid of all of this. We will investigate and catch them, yes. We do take this very, very seriously, but we have to find the culprit."
"Sharing it is an offence in itself. Things like this, if it's racially charged, Facebook will usually deal with it first. We do come out with warnings that go out straight to the owner of the page," he added.
Sheikh Raffie advised Malaysians not to get 'emotional' about such content.
On how this case was different from the infamous 'bak kut teh' post by sex bloggers Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee (who were consequently charged with sedition), Sheikh Raffie said action could be taken because the personalities were obvious.
'Here, we don't know the owner of the page. Investigations can sometimes take years," he said.
Furious Facebook users across the country blasted the administrator, who in one post, even challenged any Christian from Sabah and Sarawak to a fight (the administrator claims to be based in Senai, Johor).
Here are some:
Ajeng Imang Juk: Seorang muslim yg sejati tidak menghina agama dan bangsa orang lain.jadi orang yg buat page ini semestilah seorang muslim setengah masak. (A true Muslim will not insult another's race and religion. The person who created this page must be a half-baked Muslim).
Vergilius Preeth: Yes. I am going to type Hail Marys to the group. Gonna have some fun.
Brian Melchior Basusie: Yang lucu dan ironiknya, page Anti-Kristian ini menghina Jesus, Nabi Isa (Mengikut perspektif Islam). Yang saya tahu, jika umat2 Islam menghina ataupun tidak mengiktaraf salah satu nabi-nabi dari Nabi Nuh, hingga Nabi Isa, boleh di anggap sebagai murtad. (The ironic thing is that this page insults Jesus, a prophet in Islam. As far as I know, if Muslims insult or do not acknowledge any of the prophets, from Noah to Jesus, it can be considered 'murtad')
Jr Jasneh Sara: Bro sy org islam jg...tp org islam xpernah ajar umatny mhina agama lain!!!statement and page u ni mmg suda melampau..sabah sarawak cukup aman damai wlau punya byk etnik dan perbezaan agama tp masi bole duduk satu meja.klau u ni islam sbnr u tau apa hukumny bt bgini blajar la mhormati org lain klau u nak org mhormati u!!!take note yaa!!!
(Bro I am a Muslims too, but Islam has never taught its followers to insult another religion. This statement and the page have gone overboard. Sabah and Sarawak are peaceful (and) despite the ethnic and religious differences, they can sit together at the table. If you are a true Muslim, know the consequence of doing this, learn to respect others if you want to be respected. Take note ya!)
When one angry Christian Malaysian shared the page, many of his friends – both Muslim and non-Muslim, slammed the administrators of the page. Some also reported it to Facebook as well as the MCMC. Here are some of their comments:
Dennis H Wong: God bless their soul and forgive them... gomen... go hunt for these people lah…
Nabila Nishaa Shamsuri: Lots of my muslim brethren share your thoughts and are conveying nothing but love & peace towards other religions on this page. Happy to see that. However, it is within your power to hunt this man down using your media network. GO! GO! GO!
Nurris Ishak: I’ve reported the page too. People like these buggers gives mankind a bad name. God gave them brains and they misuse it to create crappy hate stuff like this. Bodo haram betul!
Vanessa Chua Tien An: I can't even feel angry about this. I just find it so stupid. I'm wondering though what kind of 'end-of-the-world' type ruckus would happen if this was reversed.
Source: Yahoo Malaysia.
