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I refer to the malaysiakini report, Perils mufti slams khalwat raids .

The mufti's remarks that religious officers should stop their practice of spying on and nabbing people committing close proximity (khalwat) is food for thought for our Islamic scholars.

This comes in the wake of the raid on an elderly American couple by religious officials in Langkawi which have raised howls of protest in the foreign media. The improper raid put our nation in bad light among foreigners who want to visit our country.

Don't get me wrong. I do not condone Muslims from engaging in premarital sex as I know it is great sin in Allah's (swt) eye. But parading the offending Muslim couples in public with a full blare of publicity is also wrong. Whatever sins the couple did is between them and the Almighty and they must answer in the hereafter.

We should not intrude into the private affairs of others as this is an invasion of privacy. No man is perfect and we should not prejudge people for their sins. The mufti is right when he says that religious bodies in this country have to prioritise their work.

Muslims, especially Malay youths, are facing a lot of ills in this country. Drug abuse, rape murder, incest, the Mat Rempit menace and other social ills seems to affect the Malay community more than the other races.

Corruption and abuse of power by mostly Malay Muslim leaders also needs to be addressed by our religious authorities in order to right what is wrong in this country.

I believe if every citizen in this country - regardless of their faith - follows strictly their religious beliefs there will be fewer ills in our society today. If money and power are the new religions in this modern world, no religious edicts or sermons are going to change the peoples' outlook.

On that score, religious scholars should think hard about how they are to convince Muslims to not fall prey to the temptation getting rich the easy way through corruption and abuse of power, a trend which is prevalent in our community today.

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