Press Digest - One-week deadline for tudung clad girls

KUALA LUMPUR: The Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) has given a group of tudung-clad teenage girls, involved in an indecent act during a concert by K-Pop group B1A4 last Saturday, a one-week deadline from today to give their statements over the incident.
Jawi director Paimuzi Yahya said if the teenagers failed to cooperate, an arrest warrant by court order will be issued, Utusan Malaysia reported today.
Paimuzi advised the teenagers to give their statements to assist the investigation and settle the controversy at once.
"The case will be brought to court and any penalty or fine will be decided after a trial has been conducted. Just like previous cases, normally the court will send those convicted to attend a counselling session with Jawi," he added.
Last weekend, a video clip of hugging and kissing between a number of Muslim girls and a K-Pop group member in a concert held in KL Live Centre went viral in social media sites.
The three-minute and 21-second video showed four tudung-clad girls not only allowing themselves to be hugged and kissed but returning the hug gesture to the group member.
Paimuzi said the case will be investigated under the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act, 1997 (Act 559) Indecent Acts in Public Place.
"We are conducting the investigation and the K-Pop group supporters involved in the case are yet to be identified," he told the Malay daily.
Paimuzi advised teenagers to be aware and to take into account the teaching of Islam when joining any entertainment activities.
He said parents play an important role in taking care of their children so that they would not be involved in negative activities such as what happened at the K-Pop concert.
"Parents should be aware of their children's activities and regularly advise them to be well-mannered and not to be easily involved in unhealthy activities," he added.