Mais wants mosque dress code after Teo dispute

Teo has said that she has done nothing wrong. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — Selangor religious authorities have told Masjid Taman Cheras Jaya officials to come up with a dress code for non-Muslim visitors to the mosque.

The Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) made its request last Saturday following a dispute over Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching’s allegedly tight-fitting clothes at a recent aerobics exercise programme in the mosque’s car park.

Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia has accused the DAP MP of disrespecting Muslim sensitivities for not covering her aurat and wearing what it called a tight-fitting T-shirt and track pants.

“Mais asked us to come up with guidelines,” Masjid Taman Cheras Jaya chairman Azman Idris told The Malaysian Insider today.

Earlier, Azman said the mosque had no problem with how Teo was dressed during the aerobics session on December 12 that was part of a Maal Hijrah carnival.

He had pointed out that covering the aurat was only applicable to Muslims.

Utusan Malaysia, however, has claimed that female visitors to the mosque were required to wear clothes which covered their aurat, and not “shorts or sexy clothes”.

Today, Azman said Mais deputy secretary Abdul Halem Hapiz Salihin had called last Saturday and asked if mosque officials had advised Teo on the mosque’s dress code prior to her visit.

“I told Mais that YB Teo has come to Masjid Taman Cheras Jaya before... in March last year where she officiated a street footbal tournament at our mosque compound,” said Azman.

“She was wearing a state government uniform, which was also short-sleeved. But there were no problems then,” he added.

He also stressed that there was a signboard at the mosque in Balakong telling visitors to cover their aurat.

The mosque official has said, however, that the mosque could only recommend visitors to do so.

He claimed that the issue of covering the aurat was not explicitly mandated in Islamic teachings.

Today, Azman said the mosque committee had yet to decide if it would draft a dress code for visitors to the mosque.

“I have not met Mais officially,” he said.

“I am only free after January 23. He (Abdul Halem) said he will call me then,” he added.

Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said non-Muslims should don proper attire when entering a mosque.

He said failure to do so could hurt the feelings of the Muslim community.

Jamil Khir pointed out that the National Mosque, Federal Territory Mosque and the Tuanku Mizan Mosque had made available robes and scarves to be donned by females when they entered the premises.

PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, however, has defended Teo and said Islam did not prohibit any exercise activities in the vicinity of a mosque as long as it was not against the syariah.

Teo has stressed that she did nothing wrong as she had been invited by the mosque officials and said she would continue attending functions in mosques if invited.

The first-term parliamentarian courted controversy in August last year when she entered the prayer area of the Al-Huda surau in Kajang Sentral with her hair uncovered.

Mais had barred her from entering the prayer areas of any surau or mosque in Selangor without its permission.

Teo had apologised to the Selangor Sultan after Mais claimed that her controversial surau visit had displeased him.