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‘Ramadan slap’ in Malaysia goes viral as social media responds with satire
Social media users are poking fun at the absurdity of the viral video of an elderly Malay man confronting a non-Muslim for not fasting
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Malaysian social media users are having a field day over a viral episode of an elderly Malay man slapping a non-Muslim for eating in public during Ramadan, injecting a note of levity into a situation fraught with racial undertones.
A retired civil servant, 65, was charged on Wednesday with slapping an ethnic Chinese man during a confrontation at a convenience store in southern Johor state on Sunday.
Videos went viral of the elderly man berating the 21-year-old for eating in public and demanding that he hand over his identity card to prove he was not a Muslim breaking his fast. The videos did not show the assault.
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Social media pounced on the slap bandwagon – especially non-Muslims from Sabah and Sarawak states on Malaysian Borneo who say they regularly get mistaken for Malays.
A Facebook post by Verdi Kornelis Omjai, shared over 1,200 times since Thursday, showed him sitting at a coffee shop with his identity card placed on the table as he prepares to tuck into his food.
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