‘They acted like thugs’

Raja Petra Kamarudin

KL CLUB RAID BY RELIGIOUS SQUAD

ONE girl could not take it anymore. Her request to go the toilet was refused.

She then relieved herself in her pants.

The young woman had been rounded up along with 100 other Muslim youths from a Kuala Lumpur club recently by the city’s religious officers and taken to their headquarters for questioning.

Sunday’s Malay Mail reported that the youths claim they were pounced upon, abused and rounded up like juvenile delinquents.


They claimed that they were so badly treated by the officers during a raid they have brought up the matter with Malaysia’s Attorney-General and the Minister for Women and Family Development.

HERDED

The youths alleged that they were herded out of the club, brought onto a waiting lorry and locked in a room in the religious department headquarters for up to 10 hours.

They said they were not even told why they were rounded up.

“We are not questioning their duty if they felt that they had a responsibility to ensure that Muslims behave well at all times.”

“What we are very unhappy about is the manner in which the officers bullied and harassed us in the name of Islam,” said a 26-year-old publishing executive.

“They were abusive and behaved like thugs,” she said. She had attended a celebrity-studded event at the club in KL’s Golden Triangle and decided to hang out with her friends after that.

At 12.55am, she said, a group of about 50 people, mostly men in plain clothes, burst into the club and ordered the music to be switched off.

The youths said that about four of the men were wearing vests bearing the words ”Police” and ”Jawi” (Jabatan Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan). The Jawi are Islamic religious officers.

An announcement over the club’s public address system instructed non-Muslims to proceed to another part of the club while the rest, about 100 Muslims, were told to form two separate groups – men and women.

“There were only a couple of women officers in the raiding party and as they were taking down our IC numbers, we asked them what was going on.”

“They told us they too did not know as they were asked to help out,” a female celebrity who was among those rounded up told the Malay Mail.

LOOKED FOR ALCOHOL

“We guessed by then that these guys must be from Jawi because they started to look for alcoholic drinks and shouted at us, ordering us to crouch on the floor at first, and then to form a line.”

“We were herded out of the club with our non-Muslim friends watching us, into a truck which had a cage.”

“There were no seats and we had to stand and hold on to whatever we could as they drove us away.”

“It was a nightmare because the driver was driving so recklessly and seemed to take great pleasure in hearing us scream whenever he took sharp corners.”

“When we arrived, we learnt that we were at the Jawi headquarters,” she said.

There were about 50 women in the group and they were locked up in cells. Some of the women called their families using their handphones.

The women allegedly also suffered verbal abuse and humiliation.

By 3am, many among the women asked permission to use the toilet but this was denied by the officers who said that they did not have the key.

“It was only when one girl started crying and peed in her pants that they allowed us to use the toilet,” said one of the woman.

Some said that the women were allegedly asked to twirl and turn so that the officers could assess if they were decently dressed.

OGLED

The female celebrity alleged that the three men, whose task was to decide on who was decently dressed and who was not, just ogled at the women.

She said that she was wearing a tank top and jeans. Her friend shielded her chest with her handbag but was asked to lower it so that the men could have a good look.

She said her friend felt humiliated when one of the officers allegedly commented on her nipples.

Those who the officers decided were wearing sexy clothes had their pictures taken.

A 22-year-old student who had metal piercings on her chin and belly button was allegedly asked by an officer if she had also pierced her private parts.

“The man remarked that it was because of people like her that God punished the world with the tsunami,” the celebrity told the paper.

The women were only allowed out after some parents turned up and gave written guarantees that those charged would attend a court hearing at the Federal Territory Syariah Court in April.

They can be fined up to RM1,000 ($430) if found guilty.

One of the men, who wanted to be known only as Bob, said the men’s cell was so packed that they ended up having to stand throughout their six to 10-hour ordeal.

The men were taken out in batches for breathalyser tests. According to Bob, since there was only one breathalyser available, he had to wait for six hours before he was freed.

As he had not committed any offence, he was asked to return to the religious department on February 3 for counselling.

“I asked them what kind of counselling and they replied ‘Just come’,” he said.

Are the religious officers going too far?

Parents of the girls who were rounded up and members women’s right’s group think so.

The officers are known to have spied on prominent celebrities in the past, according to one prominent celebrity.

A mother of one of the women was so furious with the alleged ”mistreatment” her daughter suffered at the hands of the religious officers that she complained to the Minister for Women and Family Development, Datuk Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

“I’m angry when I think about the injustice done to these young people. Their only offence was being a Muslim as far as I can see it. Can you imagine how they felt being treated like criminals – put on a truck and not told what was it that they had done wrong?” said Nor, one of the parents who handed a letter of complaint to the minister last week.

“The intention may be good but if only the officers showed more concern, then at least the kids would be more circumspect in public,” said another mother, who wanted to be known only as Siti. She said she was asleep when her daughter, a mass communications graduate of a private college, called her at 2am.

Added Ms Masjaliza Hamzah, Programme Manager, Sisters In Islam ( a Muslim women’s right’s group): “It smacks of disrespect for another human being and cannot by any lens be seen as ‘Islamic’.” – The Electric New Paper