I was utterly disgusted to read about the news report entitled Anti-khalwat men terrify elderly foreign couple .

The incident which was reported to have happened in Langkawi on Oct 14, when a man and his wife were rudely awakened at about 2am and accused of committing khalwat, despite being foreign visitors in their 60s and married for over 40 years.

The grandmother of four was humiliated by having to stand in front of men, dressed only in a sarong covering her body. This is what happened to United States citizens Randall Barnhart, 62, and his wife Carole, 61. To make matters even worse, Mr and Mrs Barnhart are not even Muslims.

What has Malaysia become when there are such ignorant and misguided? Thugs under the guise of officials from the Islamic Religious Affairs authority, terrorising visitors as well as the citizens of this country.

Unless things change, Malaysia can kiss tourism goodbye. I am a Muslim, and have family and friends overseas, as do many people in Malaysia. What can I tell them when they ask me about this shameful incident?

The news of this disgraceful incident will spread like a wild fire as bad news always does and Visit Malaysia Year 2007 may well fizzle out like damp fireworks. All the time, effort and money spent to promote Malaysia as a top tourist destination will be wasted just because of the arrogant, heavy-handed stupidity of a few uneducated religious fanatics.

It is to be hoped that the government gets to work fast with some damage control and also makes sure that the lunatic fringe of the Islamic affairs departments throughout Malaysia have their wings clipped.

The errant ones in Langkawi should be sacked and instead be given jobs which will help to make Langkawi more attractive to tourists.