Federal Territory mufti Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri says the girls hugged by members of a K-pop band recently should reflect on their behaviour and not repeat the mistake again. – Screengrab from YouTube, January 19, 2015.
The K-pop culture can make Muslim youths lose control of themselves and in turn, ruin the image of Islam, the Federal Territory mufti Dr Zulkfli Mohamad Al-Bakri was quoted as saying by Mingguan Malaysia today.
Commenting on the controversy surrounding the tudung-clad female fans who were hugged on stage by members of a South Korean band during a recent concert, Zulkifli said they should reflect on their behaviour, instead of defending what they perceived as freedom.
"What has happened, happened. It is wrong. There need to be a self-reflection done and a promise that they will not repeat the same mistakes again," he said in the weekly edition of the Malay daily, Utusan Malaysia.
Zulkifli said the audacity of the acts itself showed that Malay and Muslim cultures in the country are under attack by both the eastern and western cultures.
"This becomes a problem when we follow trends to this point (obsession) until we ourselves are losing our grip on the Islamic foundation as a result of this 'invasion' by both cultures.
"Let it be known that these are not part of Islam. Even now, we see the good conducts of the Malay culture are being eroded from time to time because of this," he said.
His comments came after a video of South Korean boyband B1A4 hugging their three Muslim fans at a concert last week went viral. The clip caused an outcry among Muslim groups and religious authorities.
Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) director-general Datuk Othman Mustapha had said last Monday that the department would haul up the organiser over the band members' inappropriate behaviour and for not taking precautionary measures seriously.
He had said it was a shameful act for the artistes to hug and embrace the “tudung-clad” Malay girls, who seemed to be obsessed with the K-Pop artistes.
Jawi also wanted the three Malay girls caught on video to assist its investigation under Section 29 of the Shariah Criminal Offences ( Federal Territories ) Act 1977 (Act 599 Indecent Acts in Public Places.)
Jawi director Paimuzi Yahya reportedly said the department would apply for a court order to arrest the girls if they refused to come forward to help in the investigation.
Explaining further, Zulkifli said the girls should admit their mistakes and reflect on their behaviour.
"We should learn a great lesson from all that has happened. And we don't want this to happen again, from bad to worse," he said.
"We should learn a great lesson from all that has happened. And we don't want this to happen again, from bad to worse," he said.
The controversy has also triggered complaints from netizens that religious authorities, apart from going after the girls, should also focus on local entertainment programmes which they deemed as even worse than the concert.
To this, Zulkifli suggested that the censorship of the programmes should start as early as during the pre-production stage instead of the current practice where censorship was carried out during post-production.
"If possible, we should censor the films as early as the scripting process not just after filming was done," he said.
Meanwhile, Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan and Communication and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek had expressed their disagreement with the religious authorities' move to haul the girls to court, saying that the threat was not necessary.
They said that it would be better if the girls involved could be given counselling.
- TMI
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