Police investigating offensive NUS Atheist Society post on Facebook: MHA

SINGAPORE: The police are investigating after a Facebook post was put up suggesting the Bible and the Quran as alternatives to be used in the event of toilet paper shortages.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (Mar 20) said that it has received a number of complaints about the post. 

The page, titled NUS Atheist Society, posted a photo of the Bible and Quran side-by-side with the caption: “For use during toilet paper shortages”.

Toilet paper is one of the daily essentials that consumers have been buying in bulk and hoarding amid the COVID-19 outbreak.  

MHA said that it has asked Facebook to disable access to the “religously offensive post” and highlighted “the importance of racial and religious harmony in our society”. 

Facebook has since disabled access to the post. 

Members of the public should be mindful when participating in online discussions and not post any remarks which are prejudicial to the maintenance of racial and religious harmony in Singapore, said the ministry. 

“Online hate speech on race and religion has no place in Singapore,” MHA added. 

Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Friday also said that the Facebook post was “very offensive” towards Muslims and Christians. 

Mr Shanmugam in his Facebook post said: “We take a serious view of these type of statements.”

As of Friday at around 4pm, NUS Atheist Society had around 1,000 followers.