A K-Pop concert featuring the Korean band B1A4 took a weird turn when the band’s members invited a few of their fans onstage – all of whom were Muslims girls wearing the hijab, or headscarf.
A video titled “Malay girls molested onstage by K-Pop dudes last night” released by Sukan Star TV on its Facebook page shows the girls, clearly excited to be in the presence of their pop idols, being holding hands, hugging, and being kissed by various members of B1A4, acts that are forbidden for Muslims when interacting with members of the opposite sex who are not their spouses.
Look, we’re about as flabbergasted about this as you are. Check out the video for yourself:
At the time of this writing, the video gone completely viral, with more than 44,000 shares, 25,000 Likes, and 1.7 million views.
Reactions to the surfaced video has been generally incredulous and more than a little derisive, with most of the codemnation directed towards the Muslim girls in the video, not the South Korean heartthrobs.
FB user Ziehan Abdullah commented, “I blame the girls themselves.where do u put your pride as a muslim girl.”
Another user, Umangnology Lazylollies, had this to say: “Don’t blame the kpop artist.they don’t know our culture.blame the fan who know what they should do and shouldn’t do.so it’s totally the girls fault.”
Even reigning President of Malaysian Twitter, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had to sound off on the video:
(“There’s been a lot of talk about K-Pop. I hope Malaysian girls get back to appreciating tall, dark, and handsome men. Not pale, skinny, and pretty ones. Those aren’t real men.)
As can be expected, KJ’s tweet invited a fair amount of heated responses of its own, with some Twitter users accusing him of being discriminating against skin colour (and height, and body weight, and prettiness).
The Rakyat Post reports that the organisers of the B1A4 performance, TGM Events, has issued an apology for the events that transpired onstage.
“We apologise in all sincerity for the problems caused to the artistes and their fans caused by these reports.
“In future events, we will take into consideration the cultural and religious implications of the interaction between fans and artistes.”
Despite the apology, TGM objected to Sukan Star TV’s description of what happened as being “molestation”, and insisted that the girls were not in fact “molested” during the meet and greet with B1A4, but willingly touched and kissed the K-Pop stars.
“The terminology used was taken out of context and it is extremely disappointing to us to witness an act of such irresponsible journalism.”
