MALAYSIA - Owners of LGBTQ Watch Could Face Jail
Malaysia’s government said that anyone buying or selling LGBTQ-themed Swatch watches could face prison terms of up to three years, as authorities pledged to stop the sale of Swatch products with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer elements that “may harm the morality” of the country.
The formal ban is just the latest crackdown by the government on rainbow-colored Swatch products. In May, Malaysia's law enforcement unit at the interior ministry raided Swatch stores at 11 shopping malls across the country, including in the capital Kuala Lumpur, confiscating timepieces bearing what it called “LGBT elements,” the French news agency AFP reported.
Swatch filed a lawsuit in response to those raids in July, saying the government had damaged the company’s reputation.
In a statement emailed to CBS News, the Swatch Group declined to comment on the latest ban on some of its products in Malaysia and said the company was “still waiting for the hearing” regarding its existing lawsuit.
-www.cbsnews.com, 10 August 2023
Arno's Commentary
The official religion of Malaysia is Islam, comprising about 62% of the population, with Buddhism at 20% and Christianity 9.2%. It is of interest to note that the “Christian world” is actually at the forefront of protecting and even promoting the LGBTQ movement.
Another report by NBC News states that Iraq has banned the media from using the term “homosexuality”; instead, they must use “sexual deviance.” The word “gender” was also banned. That article concluded: “More than 60 countries criminalize gay sex, while same-sex sexual acts are legal in more than 130 countries, according to Our World in Data.”
One of the undeniable end-time signs is that of Sodom. “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:29). What happened in Sodom? The Sodomites had political power. We read in Genesis 19:9: “And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.” Later in the New Testament, Peter adds: “And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds)” (2 Peter 2:7-8).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
