We spotted a post circulating on Reddit claiming that the Malaysian Islamic Party (the PAS) was promoting a boycott of mandarin oranges.
Source: PAS Kawasan Kluang Facebook
The alleged Facebook message reads:
“when it’s their festival.. Malays queue to buy this fruit.
during the fasting month .. do you see them queuing to buy dates?
so boycott it. simple.”
Apparently, the post was deleted shortly after being posted on the PAS’s Facebook page.
Having looked around for independent reporting sources of this news, we have found none. Accordingly, we cannot verify if indeed the PAS had published this post.
We have contacted them this morning (16 Jan 2018) for their comment and will update if a response is received.
Comment: This post is intriguing because, while PAS has a reputation for extreme views in terms of religion, race and culture, it may be that the PAS never posted this and some other agency/organisation is spreading fake news to push the public perception of PAS towards being one of an extremist organisation. Already the views of the PAS on Reddit (r/Malaysia) appear to tend in this manner as a result of the post.
