by Arlene Tan (@ArleneTan)
After the ordeal suffered as a result of GaySec’s libel, Arlene Tan tells her side of the story.
The week a fortnight ago was tough for me as it really taught me the values of patience and forgiveness. Despite all these, I feel sad that in this holy month of Ramadan, there are still people out there who do not understand the importance of respecting truth and upholding the good values taught in Islam.
This article is written in response to the event that unfolded two weeks ago, when a bunch of school-kids went on a crusade to expose the identity behind Sitt Al-Wuzara. These kids calling themselves GaySec had unfortunately caused a huge damage and hurt to my personal life as they falsely accused me of being Sitt. They exposed my identity and personal information on the internet, and worse they created disinformation by accusing me of being a murtad (apostate) and insulting Islam.
I am saddened that people believed in such misleading allegation and in fact even spread the false news to others. It became like wildfire that I feared for my life, Never in my life had I been fitnah (slandered) by people who have no regards of other people’s lives.
Before I rewind back on what actually happened last week, I want to be clear about who I am, what I did or didn’t do. Due to GaySec’s misleading accusation, many assumed that I am a member or knew about the Facebook group Apostate of Malaysia and Singapore (AMS). The truth is, I have never been a member of AMS and have never even heard of it until I was falsely accused. I am all for free speech and freedom of expression, but I am definitely against any sorts of hate speech or mockery of any religion.
On the other hand, I actively joined debates and discussions in the Facebook group Malaysian Atheist, Agnostics, Freethinkers and Friends (MAFA), as well as Unscientific Malaysia (UM). These groups promote healthy discussions on various issues, ranging from science, philosophy, religion & faith (any religion, even scientology), supernatural, controversial issues, etc.
What was interesting about these groups is, they encourage people from all spectrum of belief-system — from religious, to conservative, to liberal, to secular — to give their two-cents.
The so-called “evidence” that GaySec proudly cropped out and displayed came from a long discussion thread in MAFA titled “Malay Atheist?” more than a year ago. As Muslims, I think it is important never to judge, and understand the plight of others.
As an avid traveller, what inspires me most are the knowledge, cultures and people that I meet along the way. I notice that Islam prospers tremendously and Muslims display the values of Islam much better in places where people are free to choose their religion — especially secular nations where religion is free from political manipulation and state hijack.
That is why in most of my writings I advocate the importance of upholding faith as a personal relationship with God, rather than wearing religion as if it is mere marketing brand to show off to others. I care a lot about Islam, hence I feel it is a duty for me to uphold these values.
Coming back to the night when GaySec threatened me: I received random calls from people I do not know and death threats in SMSes. People kept on sending hate messages to my phone and Facebook account with really horrible messages.
Some wanted to rape me, some wanted to kill me slowly until I die a horrible death, some called me a whore or animals, some even said that I was born because my mom had sex with a dog! What was my crime to receive such hate messages?
Is it wrong to comment about the authorities and looking for a clean religion that lives in the hearts of believers? Asking the authorities not to downgrade the value of religion? Had anybody who sent me those dirty words thought of why they were doing that? I felt the world had become dark as I was drowning in sadness.
These people were just following a very clear mistake without even questioning. This time I was the victim, but it was possible that this could happen to anyone. What if their own family or themselves had been threatened like that? Would they forgive? Could they stand it?
The eagerness and hatred in finding the identity of Sitt is understandable, but abusing religion and people’s emotion to seek attention and making noises for nothing will never help it. All I could say was istighfar to God seeking for His guidance.
It got even more horrid when I saw blogs dedicated to how I should be killed, some became stalkers and digged deeper information about me, but none of them cared to check their facts or even thought about the grave sin of fitnah in spreading the lies.
I was under so much stress and sadness from GaySec’s despicable act. Was this how easy of them to accuse another Muslim of murtad just because of differences in opinion? Islam was forced to become mere playing field for these hooligans in order for them to satisfy their sadistic need of so-called jihad (holy war).
That night, I received so many calls that I got a really bad feeling that something wrong is happening. I was so sleepy and tired, but a good friend brought me to the police station in the wee hours to make a police report. I was forced to skip work a few days as I feared that my life was threatened.
After the report, I consulted a lawyer and lodged a report to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission for and (MCMC) as well. I went to MCMC to co-operate with the officers in their investigation. I also wrote a public statement that I was wrongly accused but instead I received so many hate and vulgar comments in my blog. These had made me very sad.
To add salt to injury, GaySec only stated a public apology after the damage had been done. In fact, they treated the whole episode as just a small mistake and again falsely accused me as “keliru dalam agama” (confused in religion). They did not see that they had in fact committed a serious crime and a serious sin of fitnah which is despised by Allah. Again, religion has become mere tool for these people to simply brand someone that does not share their views as “confused”.
This is how blind faith works where people are subjected to conform without question — especially when it comes to the superiority of religious authorities. The essence of Islam is buried within the books untouched and collecting dust (while pretenders scream loudly as the “defenders of Islam”), Islam is being played according to the politics of the day, while constructive criticism and expression of free thoughts are refrained.
I call all moderate Muslims who uphold peace and truth to speak out against such hooligans who only care to hijack Islam and its good values. For those who are still hunting Sitt, please go to the police and MCMC to provide your evidence, instead of harming the life of another innocent human being. Don’t expose personal informations on the internet and create even more sin of fitnah among the Muslim community in our country.
To GaySec, let me be very clear. If forgiveness is what you seek, I suggest you:
- Taubat (repent) to Allah,
- Come forward to me personally and apologise,
- Retract all their posts about me on the internet,
- Give a disclaimer message to all the blogs, Facebook group, page and personal comments that they had fitnah/slandered me and caused grave harm and distress to my life
- Demand all these sites to delete the misinformation and stop them from spreading
- Perform community services at places, and with people of other religion/race, preferably in places of worship of other religion or poverty-stricken areas inhabited by non-Malays
- Blog about their interfaith experience in their community service afterwards
- Learn comparative religion on Islam, Christian, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrian, Atheism, Agnosticism, Jainism and Taoism by talking to people of these faiths or do research of your own (the internet for a start?)
- Read books by Islamic philosophers/thinkers such as Ali Shariati, Rumi, Avicenna and Fatema Mernissi and blog about your thoughts on the writings of these scholars.
- Do charity work by volunteering in NGO that promotes welfare to the poor, sick and unfortunate.
Just a reminder to GaySec: the punishment for fitnah (if not being forgiven) is hell.
To other Muslims who helped spread the fitnah about me, if forgiveness is in your mind too, I urge you to repent and do as much as you can in promoting good values of Islam. Please stop the fitnah by deleting your blog posts that falsely accused me and enlighten your readers to refrain from fitnah or hate speech.
My sincere hope is for Malaysia to be a nation that upholds true peace and harmony, regardless of race, religion and creed. From now on, we all ought to go against the evil veins of ignorance, hate speech and blind faith. Only through upholding good values in religion — in any religion for that matter — can we mature and prosper as a nation.
Nevertheless, I want to thank all those who had stood by me and did not believe GaySec’s accusation. I also would like to thank my family and friends that tried their best to counter the disinformation spread by GaySec. There are good people that went to these blogs and Facebook walls to request people not to quickly point fingers, and instead asked them to verify the validity of the accusation.
I would like to thank Azwan Ismail for coming forth to clarify the truth regarding on the discussion threat in MAFA. Finally, I would like to thank all blogs that promote their readers to think wisely, not to spread fitnah and respect truth. Especially Unscientific Malaysia, which quickly responded to GaySec’s false accusation by debunking their half-baked “evidence” with factual analysis.
Thank you and Salam.
