Asia in 3 minutes: Dispute expert killed in dispute; Malaysia mosque bans tourists after sexy dance
Meanwhile, what happened to the anti-American sentiment in North Korea?
Blogger killed by troll after giving lecture on settling online disputes
A well-known Japanese blogger has been stabbed to death by an internet user he had argued with, soon after giving a talk on “how to manage disputes online”. Kenichiro Okamoto, known as Hagex, was reportedly followed to the toilets and stabbed several times in the back after a conference in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, according to local media. According to his blog, the 41-year-old wanted to “share his experiences about quarrels online and how to deal with them”.
What next? The attacker fled the scene on a bicycle but later turned himself in and confessed to the crime. Matsumoto said he “hated” Okamoto after he clashed with him online, according to the police and media. Police quoted Matsumoto as saying, “I held a grudge against him over internet [exchanges],” and “I thought I would kill him.” Okamoto was a specialist on online security who appeared several times on television to talk about the internet in Japan.
Malaysia mosque bans tourists after ‘sexy dance’ goes viral
A Malaysian mosque has banned tourists after a video of two female visitors in skimpy outfits dancing in front of the Muslim holy site went viral online. The pair, of East Asian appearance and believed to be foreigners, were filmed doing the dance in skimpy shorts and tops exposing their midriffs on a wall outside the main mosque in the city of Kota Kinabalu. Residents and local Muslim groups were incensed by the risqué moves outside the holy site on Borneo island, which is renowned for its huge blue and gold dome and ornate minarets. An outraged onlooker can be heard in the video saying: “Why don’t they just fall off the wall?”
What next? Mosque chairman Jamal Sakaran slammed “the unacceptable behaviour by foreign tourists” and announced a temporary halt to any tourists visiting the mosque, adding the move was to preserve the sanctity of Islam. State Tourism Minister Christina Liew told The Star newspaper legal action would not be taken against the pair, as they were likely unaware of the severity of their actions. But authorities wanted to track them down to explain “that something they deemed as ‘fun’ was actually disrespectful”.
Outrage in Philippines after President Duterte calls God ‘stupid’
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte faced outrage in his largely Catholic nation after calling God “stupid”, the latest furore he has sparked with an unfiltered broadside. Duterte took aim at the biblical creation story during a speech, raising the question of why God would create Adam and Eve and then expose them to temptation. “Who is this stupid God?” he asked. “You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would tempt and destroy the quality of your work.”
