Wednesday, June 4, 2014

‘Khalid, rein in Jais and stop their follies’

PETALING JAYA: Selangor Islamic Religious department’s (Jais) actions over the past year is causing friction between the Muslims and non-Muslims.
Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang said in a statement today that to prevent any more unwanted friction between Muslims and non-Muslims, Jais’s action “must be controlled.”
“Gerakan Youth urged Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim to ensure Jais to be more sensitive in exercising their powers in the future, since Jais is a state agency under the Selangor government,” he said.

Last Sunday, Jais disrupted a wedding ceremony of a Malaysian Indian couple at a Hindu temple and took the bride to a police station to record her statement.
According to reports, the woman was converted to Muslim by her father without her knowledge, as her mother was illiterate and continued to bring up the children in the ways of a Hindu. The bride only found out about her conversions a few years ago.
“It is unfortunate that Jais has to resort to such a dramatic action to disrupt a wedding. They could have handled the matter in many other ways without causing severe embarrassment to anyone at the ceremony,” said Tan.
Earlier this year, Jais caused another uproar by raiding Bible Society of Malaysia (Bsm) and seized more than 300 Malay and Iban language bibles without reason.
The bibles have yet to be returned and the matter is still in limbo.
Tan said Khalid, as the head of Selangor government should stop being silent on the conduct of the Selangor state agency.