This is pretty old news in my homeland, but I'm sure the netizens aren't exactly aware...
Source: Yahoo News - http://sg.news.yahoo.com/051007/1/3vhxo.html
Two ethnic Chinese men became the first bloggers in multi-racial Singapore to be punished under the city-state's tough anti-sedition legislation for posting anti-Muslim remarks on the Internet.
Benjamin Koh, 28, was given two concurrent one-month jail terms while Nicholas Lim, 25, was jailed for one day and fined 5,000 Singapore dollars (2,960 US) after they pleaded guilty Friday to the June offences.
"The doing of an act which has a seditious tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between races or classes of the population in Singapore is serious," judge Richard Magnus said in handing down his ruling.
"Racial and religious hostility feeds on itself," he said.
Singapore has worked hard to promote racial and religious harmony after suffering from bloody Chinese-Malay racial riots in the 1960s, together with neighboring Malaysia.
Ethnic Chinese make up 76 percent of Singapore's resident population of 3.4 million with Malay Muslims accounting for 13.7 percent followed by ethnic Indians, Eurasians and other racial groups.
Koh and Lim's case was triggered by a letter to the Straits Times newspaper from a Malay Muslim Singaporean woman, Zuraimah Mohammed, who in a query to taxi firms said uncaged dogs may drool on taxi seats or dirty them with their paws.
Under the Syafie school of thought to which most members of the local Muslim community belong, contact with dog saliva is prohibited.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a foreign media forum Thursday that Singapore wants to ensure that no disaffection takes root among people who might feel excluded in society.
"And so, racial harmony and religious harmony are of utmost importance in Singapore, which is why when somebody went and published some racist blogs recently, we came down very hard," he said.
"All you need is one crazy guy and a disaster takes place and an enormous rent happens, a tear in the fabric of society."
Source: Yahoo News - http://sg.news.yahoo.com/051007/1/3vhxo.html
Two ethnic Chinese men became the first bloggers in multi-racial Singapore to be punished under the city-state's tough anti-sedition legislation for posting anti-Muslim remarks on the Internet.
Benjamin Koh, 28, was given two concurrent one-month jail terms while Nicholas Lim, 25, was jailed for one day and fined 5,000 Singapore dollars (2,960 US) after they pleaded guilty Friday to the June offences.
"The doing of an act which has a seditious tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between races or classes of the population in Singapore is serious," judge Richard Magnus said in handing down his ruling.
"Racial and religious hostility feeds on itself," he said.
Singapore has worked hard to promote racial and religious harmony after suffering from bloody Chinese-Malay racial riots in the 1960s, together with neighboring Malaysia.
Ethnic Chinese make up 76 percent of Singapore's resident population of 3.4 million with Malay Muslims accounting for 13.7 percent followed by ethnic Indians, Eurasians and other racial groups.
Koh and Lim's case was triggered by a letter to the Straits Times newspaper from a Malay Muslim Singaporean woman, Zuraimah Mohammed, who in a query to taxi firms said uncaged dogs may drool on taxi seats or dirty them with their paws.
Under the Syafie school of thought to which most members of the local Muslim community belong, contact with dog saliva is prohibited.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a foreign media forum Thursday that Singapore wants to ensure that no disaffection takes root among people who might feel excluded in society.
"And so, racial harmony and religious harmony are of utmost importance in Singapore, which is why when somebody went and published some racist blogs recently, we came down very hard," he said.
"All you need is one crazy guy and a disaster takes place and an enormous rent happens, a tear in the fabric of society."
