JAIS in hot soup again!

After the controversial raid at a Hindu temple in Petaling Jaya last month, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) is once again in news for allegedly wrongful arrest of four individuals for khalwat. Khalwat is when unmarried couple is found in a close proximity and is suspected of engaging in immoral activities. The victim, Hanisha Abdul Rahman, 29, claimed she was detained by two JAIS officers on June 22 with a driver, Muhammad Mukamil Nordin and two of her employees while they were busy packing up to move house. Hanisha who owned a beauty boutique said, the incident took place when Muhammad Mukamil was outside of the house while the woman and two employees who are also her housemates, were in the house at Salak Tinggi, Selangor. "I was surprised for being arrested for no apparent reason. They continued to say that we came to arrest us for khalwat," she was quoted saying at a press conference in Petaling Jaya, Selangor today. The three women and Muhammad Mukamil want JAIS to drop the charges or face legal action. This is not the first time JAIS is brought to the limelight for alleged abuse of power. Last month, the religious body was publicly criticised for storming the Hindu wedding of Zarinah Abdul Majid over the confusion of her religious status. Zarinah had said then that her Muslim convert father had secretly converted her and her siblings but argued that they had always been practising the Hindu religion.