SHAH ALAM – Desperate to find a rental house in Terengganu after a two weeks search, a woman seeks help from a man but he allegedly requested for sexual favours in return.
Shimalaa Sanmuggam posted on her Facebook about the ordeal, revealing that she had approached over 40 houses to rent, but owners were reluctant to rent their house to a non-Muslim.
Hence, she contacted a man who was in a Facebook group to see if she could get the help she needed.
However, the man told her that if he managed to find a house for her, there would be a fee but in terms of sexual favours.
"If I found the house, there’s wages but I don’t want money, I want the ‘game’ where people ‘play’ after marriage instead,” he said in the messages Shimalaa shared in her post.
Shimalaa was speechless and did not reply to his messages.
She questioned where was the humanitarian grounds if the difficulties in finding rental place and being treated were all due to race and religion.
"How can people be so quick to stereotype without even meeting a person in real life? A girl, all alone in a state without family or friends, seeking help, yet encountering strong prejudices,” she said in her post.
Meanwhile, the post has since garnered close to 5,000 reactions as well as hundreds of comments from netizens who slammed the man’s requests.
A user @Ariff Musa commented "I can tell you one thing for sure, he does not represent us Muslim, You can seek for house for rent via property agent or direct with the local Facebook group in that local area, also non-Muslim can find house for rent very easily in Terengganu, I know several rented house rent by non Muslim, it's not an issue for real and yes I am from Terengganu,” he said.
Another user @Muhd Adam Iqbal said "Dear friend on behalf of Terengganu (people), I’m sorry and ashamed of this man. Really sorry,” he said.
However, after the post was posted the man presented his side of the story and claimed that it was not him.
In a post, he wrote in Warga Setiu, he claimed that his Facebook account got hacked and he could not log into his account.
"I swear on my wife and kids that I did not do this disgusting act. Maybe God is trying to test me, and I apologise for the inconvenience caused under my name. I will try to deactivate my account as soon as possible,” he wrote.