Former Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob has been declared the President-elect on Sept. 13, 2017.

In her acceptance speech, she described this day as "a proud moment for Singapore" and "a proud moment for multi-culturalism, for multi-racialism in our society".

While Singaporeans are still reacting to the walkover and thinking through what it really means for us, it seems that the sight of a non-Chinese head of state has triggered thoughts -- and some pretty provocative ones in the minds of people in other countries.

Such as in China.

China's netizens harping on religion

Enter Chinese netizens on Weibo, China's largest micro-blogging platform.

They had been aware of the news of Halimah emerging as the sole eligible candidate in the election from earlier news.

Though the coverage of her on Weibo wasn't exactly extensive, the reception from Chinese netizens has been nothing less than shocking.

While Singaporeans were deep in discussion about race and the issue of a lack of contest, Chinese netizens have been harping on another point instead: Religion.

They think Singapore is turning Islamic

The comments on Singapore supposedly turning into a religious state appeared in nearly many Weibo posts of the news coverage.

Netizens used the colour green to describe their perceived Islamisation of Singapore, and their comments were a mixture of condescension and outright ignorance.

The following are some of the top comments on various posts on our Presidential Election:

Translation: "Green-gapore" - Islamgapore

Translation: Singapore, the 'county', is turning green (Islamic)

Translation: So this is the pace of Singapore turning green (Islamic)?

Translation: Green (Islamic) governance

Translation: Singapore is also going 'environmentally-friendly' by turning green (Islamic)?

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And just when we thought this was the limit of their prejudices, some chipped in with even more offensive perspectives which reveal their deep-seated biases.

Like this:

Translation: Seeing her in a tudung reminds me of terrorists.

Erm, really speechless stuff. Not cool at all.

Top image composite image via background image by Ilene Fong and Micro World's post

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