Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor today instructed the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) not to raid massage parlours in the state, because doing so would be an overreach of the agency’s jurisdiction.
His Royal Highness said the Islamic enforcement aggency, which serves under his direct authority as Selangor’s head of Islam, needed to be aware that its purview was limited to matters of religion.
“Jais must only act within its scope of duties involving Islamic matters only, without encroaching on the jurisdiction of local authorities such as the enforcement (of laws) on massage parlours, among others,” The Malay Mail Online quoted the Sultan as saying.
“This is important so that Jais will not be accused of acting beyond their jurisdiction and focusing only on the trivial while neglecting the bigger problems,” he said.
Jais and the Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (Mais) have been increasingly criticised for overstepping their boundaries, stemming from their decisions earlier this year to raid the Bible Society Malaysia’s offices to seize more than 300 copies of Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Iban translations of the Bible; and the raiding of a Hindu wedding in Petaling Jaya on the suspicion that the bride was a registered Muslim.
Jais, however, has stood its ground and defended its actions as having been carried out “by the book”.
