First of all, I'm writing this post with respect to my Muslim brethrens; after all, the religious police here is clearly understood to belong to the religion of Islam.

The topic description says it all. Are they necessary in the first place? Or have they merely pushed social limits?

We have heard of several controversies regarding the religious police. One of the most embarassing I suppose is the case where a senior married foreign couple got 'caught' during a vacation in Malaysia. The poor lady was traumatised; her husband demanded apology from the religious police and other parties who may be directly or indirectly involved with the case.

Then we have the case of a baby seized from its Hindu mother and surrendered to its Muslim grandmother (Ref: http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=115947) which evoked a lot of response from fellow forumers.

The religious police in my opinion would have been okay if they just stuck to cases involving Muslims, and Muslims only, eg. those usual tangkap basah cases on Muslim couples, Muslims who eat before the buka puasa hour during the monht of Ramadhan, etc. But being a multi-religious community, it is not a surprise that we have non-Muslim parties getting tangled up in such controversies as well. And the result is often disastrous - religious police meddling in strictly personal, highly sensitive areas such as births and deaths.

I would like to see what you - both Muslims and non-Muslims - have to say regarding this matter. Frankly speaking, I think the religious police is 'taking care of other people's side of the cloth' (menjaga tepi kain orang) to the point they meddle in personal affairs. Would the community - or even the Muslim community itself - be better off without the religious police? Or are they still a necessity that just needs a clear-cut rule regarding their areas of authority?

My 2 bits worth is that you cannot force people to subjugate themselves to religion. If a person chooses to follow religious laws that is thier own personal and free choice.

f.ck the Poh-lease

" The religious police in my opinion would have been okay if they just stuck to cases involving Muslims,"

Amen sista

this is just ridiculous

I was had a bitter experience by the "religious police" at the boarding school I went to. Some seniors made out a big hoo-haa out of a platonic and innocent encounter after class between me and this girl, who was a long-time family friend from KL. The ustaz wanted to cower us into submission and made us say really silly things which didn't happen. We stood our ground and he and the discipline teacher backed down but that was my first and only first hand exprience in dealing with overzealous religious folks. He thought he was completely right of course.

Imagine if you or your friend were not a person of strong will what would have happened. Its often not easy to stand up against people high up the religious tree. I remember priests who were quite forceful as well.

Yeah, it left a really bitter taste in my mouth. Up till that point, the ustaz and ustazahs I'd met were all kind, considerate, easy-going people that I respected from and looked up to. The one above was my first encounter with the hellfire and brimstone variety. And he was so political it's not funny. Fanatical priests and fundamentalist ustazs are all cut from the same cloth, really.

Religion should not be about power but unfortunately some people use it for this purpose, maybe not intentionally. You know the saying "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely"

Well, in my views, Malaysian Muslims still needs the 'religious police' to uphold Sharia laws to Muslims only.

Besides, our local cops do not have time to act as religious police, & serving in that capacity are ludicrous.

Sometimes, religious authorities went overboard, but that was only minority cases, isolated incidents.

In the case of they mistakenly nabbed non-Muslim couple, that is rare, mostly caused by misinformation. Even cops or fire safety dept got mixup cases as well.

Only a very generous Muslim (or a very open-minded one) would allow non-Muslims to comment on whether there is a need to retain a religious police force (or their enthusiastic assistants, RELA). As such I will hold my tongue on this one.

However I'm surprised that NONE of our Muslim friends have suggested that the Religious Police (RP) or RELA volunteers apologize whenever they make a mistake in nabbing non-Muslims. I'm sure some of these morality officers have been gracious enough to admit their mistakes at times.

But in some of the incidents that made the news, it was particularly disturbing to see that these officers did not see that the people they inconvenienced deserved an apology.

Why should saying, "I'm sorry", be left to the Ministers and public spokesperson, when a simple apology from the officers could have diffused the hurt and embarrassment of our non-Muslim fellow Msians? Refusing to admit a wrong can easily be perceived as arrogance by the public. And eating humble pie does not mean you are begrudged of your religious duties.

Is it any wonder that there is a grating feeling of unease towards over-zealous Muslims?

Protoculture,
Making few mistakes, but being rude about each of them is worse than making many mistakes and being sincerely apologetic for them all.

I'm not being apologetic to them all. Its just that, people questioned whether we need them at all ... in which, Muslim communities still need these religious officers ... as long as they don't go 'Talibanistic' on us.

As for RELA, a few bad apples ruined the entire orchard, in this case RELA organisation. Even Police too. But don't let an action of a bad few to stain an otherwise responsible & hardworking agency.

Religious police - bad for your health. They are not necessary. Most of them are not religious at all - so gatal.

Bad generalisation. Now that is certainly bad for public health.

If so gatal one, then those guys should marry another one-lah .... got nothing to do with topic at hand.

I have seen the "God Squad" drinking alcohol = Tiger Beer, in Malaysia and in Brunei.
On one occasion, a member of a God Squad was reported to the local Police as a peeping Tom,
on investigation he was seen intoxicated......but it was hushed up

Hardly, such case will be surely caused a disciplinary action amounting to the sacking from his position. The only way to do that is to gather evidence & send it direct to the Religious Dept head honcho ... he sure kena one!