IN a rare twist of plot, Muslims are urging Buddhists/Taoists who are aggrieved by the proliferation of social media posts depicting temples/shrines in an offensive manner to report the matter to the police/Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as they contain obvious 3R (race, religion, royalty) breaches.
The posts which emanated from intensified football rivalry between Selangor and Johor are apparently directed at Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah who on Wednesday (June 26) expressed anger at the punishment meted out on Selangor FC for withdrawing from the Charity Shield football match.
“I’m Buddhist. I’m offended. Should I be angry/cursing/reporting something to the police?” wondered X user Pq (@OngPq) with reference to a tweet portraying a Buddha image in a meditating posture by Bola Tribe (@BolaTribe).
Interestingly, Ong’s post which has garnered almost 824,000 views at the time of writing received an all-round aye with the top two most viewed urging him “not to give face” and wanting to see if Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil would take action.
For more insight, Sultan Sharafuddin had in a strongly worded statement on Wednesday (June 26) slammed the punishment handed down by the Malaysian Football League (MFL) against Selangor FC comprising a RM100,000 fine, paying compensation to the home team and MFL for any losses incurred, a three-point deduction and playing a match without spectators as “absurd and excessive” considering that victory was already given to opponent, Johor Darul Ta’zim FC a.k.a. JDT.
Following the stern reprimand from the Selangor ruler, MFL reduced the fine against Selangor FC from RM100,000 to RM60,000 and cancelled the deduction of three points in the 2024-2025 Super League.
This led to Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim lamenting how MFL could have U-turned on the fine and point penalty against Selangor FC following the Selangor ruler’s intervention with the conclusion, “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the real Tokong of Malaysian football”.
Back to Ong’s anguish, it seems that a fellow “half-Buddhist”, too, expressed a similar sentiment of “feeling like wanting to lodge a police report” with one netizen revealing that “my Buddhist friend had already done so”. – July 1, 2024
