Islamic religious teacher says WeChat is to blame for rise of LGBT movement in Malaysia

He has called on the government to institute tight controls over the internet, citing North Korea as an example to follow

An Islamic religious teacher in Malaysia has blamed WeChat for the rise of the LGBT movement in his country, recommending that the government address this issue by adopting new, ultra-strict controls over the internet, using North Korea as its model.

According to the Malay Mail Online, Ustaz Hanafiah Abd Malek spoke in a recent interview with the local Sinar Harian newspaper about how the LGBT movement was growing stronger by the day in Malaysia, daring to challenge national institutions and demanding legal rights — homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia, punishable under a colonial-era sodomy law by up to 20 years in prison.

Hanafiah says that local LGBT groups have been able to expand their influence and spread slogans like “gay is okay” and “people like us” through social media, something he hopes to see the government curb.

He has suggested that as its model in this effort, Putrajaya ought to take some pages from Pyongyang’s playbook, instituting tight monitoring of all websites and restricting access to only a few approved sites — WeChat not being one of these.

“This move should be followed by Malaysia in order to control this deviant symptom. Besides Facebook and the likes, the application that is most dangerous in causing this movement to grow strongly is WeChat. Through this medium, this LGBT group starts to connect and expand,” Hanafiah was quoted as saying.

“Whether it is the LGBT movement or other troubled teenagers that we found. Most communicate through WeChat. Using the ‘touch & go’ concept, they have sex and illegitimate children are born,” he added.

Hanafiah is an adviser and patron of Pertubuhan Amal Firdausi (Pafi), a non-governmental organization which claims to help LGBT individuals “turn over a new leaf.” He says that instead of condemning the LGBT community, they should be approached with “love” and given time to “heal.”

Similarly, earlier this week, a Muslim students’ coalition in Malaysia organized an anti LGBT forum titled “LGBT: A Chronic Cancer in Malaysia” at which members claimed that their discussion was held not to “instill hate towards the [LGBT] community but to understand them better.”

The online news portal Malaysiakini writes that partly because of its persecution of the LGBT community, Malasyia lost its bid to be elected last year to the United Nations Human Rights Council — the only candidate out of 16 countries vying for spots on the council to be turned down.

At a session on Tuesday of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) in Geneva, Switzerland, government representatives asserted that Malaysia’s LGBT community was being treated “equally.” However, when asked about how LGBT students were being protected at schools, the Putrajaya representative struggled to answer.

Back in 2012, the country’s education ministry was accused of endorsing guidelines which aimed to help parents spot gay and lesbian “symptoms” in their children, these so-called “symptoms” included: “likes having a fit body and likes to show off by wearing V-neck and sleeveless clothes” and “a preference for tight and bright-colored clothes.”

Last year, the Sinar Harian newspaper published its own “how to spot a gay” checklist. The article claimed that gay men were indentifiable by thier branded clothing and their love for going to the gym — not for the purpose of exercise but to check out other guys.

A few months later, a teen in Penang was beaten, burnt, and raped by a group of young men who had bullied him in the past because he “seemed gay.” After being taken to a hospital he was declared brain dead and died a short time later.

Of course, Malaysia doesn’t have to go all the way to North Korea for advice on restricting social media. Last month, China’s biggest gay dating app Blued was taken off Google’s app store in Indonesia amid a crackdown on the country’s LGBT community.