Silence peacefully descended upon Bali on Saturday during the Balinese new year, all over the island—well except on the web.
Respecting the Balinese holiday Nyepi, where lights are low and sound is kept to a minimum, cable TV providers cut their service on March 21 for 24 hours.
One man apparently was so enraged that he could not watch an Arsenal football match that he took to Facebook and slammed Nyepi, using a series of expletives that we’d venture to say he would never dare repeat in front of his mother.
Merdeka reports that a man from Lombok living in Denpasar called Nando Irwansyah M’ali updated his Facebook status on Saturday night at 11:59 pm to offensively read:
bener2 f*ck nyepi sialan se goblok ne, q jadi gak bisa nonton ARSENAL maen,, q sumpahin acara gila nyepi semoga tahun depan pasa ogoh2 terbakar semua yang merayakan,, f*ckkkk you hindu.
However, probably from a flood of angry comments in response, Nanado promptly removed the status, according to Merdeka.
After reading Nando’s extremely insensitive status, Nyoman Suartha from a youth organization told Merdeka that it appears Nando did not think through everything he was saying.
“As Hindus are polite, we forgive and will let God punish him. But the world of law must be applied so that people like this do not continue to cause offense and create racial problems,” Suartha told Merdeka.
Blasphemy is illegal under Indonesian law and Nando’s hateful status could actually land him prison time.
Following his controversial statements, Nando is believed to have fled to Lombok, but before doing so, he allegedly created a new account with a status apologizing for his stupidity in his “dumb statement,” pleading for the community to forgive him.
In response to Nando’s inflammatory remarks, Bali police spokesman Hery Wiyanto said on Sunday that investigations into Nando’s alleged blasphemy are being carried out through ITE (information and electronic transaction), reports Merdeka.
According to Tribun Bali, Nando was reported to police by five organizations, so it looks like ignoring his statements is not exactly an option. One of the men who reported Nando said to Tribun, “We hope there is a deeper investigation. Is there someone else behind the writing and for what purpose. We forgive, but we will follow the legal process.”
If he is proven guilty, he can face charges for contempt of religion, Wiyanto said, as quoted by Merdeka.
Photo at the top: Twitter @okesharezone
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