COMMENT The Selangor Islamic Religious Affairs Department (Jais) cannot hide behind its spurious actions and be exonerated from its controversial intrusion into a charity dinner held at a church compound recently.

Jais must be held accountable for its actions because it strikes at the very heart of criminal jurisprudence, law enforcement and administration of justice; Islamic or otherwise.

It just cannot resort to lempar batu sembunyi tangan - being the hidden hand behind a spurious act and allowed to get away with it through flawed reasoning.

Its actions are spurious, simply because they are not what it purports to be. Its line of reasoning may be apparently valid, but not factually so.

Did Jais know what it did was wrong? If it did, then this alone can be indicted as a criminal offence. Jais has turned the tables on itself - the law enforcer becomes the offender.

NONE In what appeared to be a vigilante action, Jais descended upon a charity function held at a Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) hall without invitation, permission or due authority on Aug 3.

While the media described this as a raid, Jais claimed it was a search. The problem is it did not have a search warrant. Conducting a search without a warrant or an order from the court is considered extra-judicial action. Is Jais, therefore, exempt from due process? And if so, why so?

Having exposed itself as the hidden hand that threw the proverbial stone, Jais resorted to more spurious actions.

It hastily assembled a preliminary report to justify its action. That report found its way into YouTube and blogs, complete with video streams of 12 Muslims found at the dinner that night, together with their full , identification card numbers and photos.

How did this report get onto the Internet when it is obviously privy to only a few top Jais officers?

Following the sinister publication of the report, the 12 have been feathered and tarred as apostates, without much hope of redeeming themselves.

This is gross travesty of justice as it violates every rule of natural justice and that of a fair trial in the event that they are called to defend themselves later. This is nothing less than a miscarriage of justice.

To compound their predicament further, the 12 are now directed to undergo counselling by Jais to "restore their faith and belief in the religion of Islam".

'Fishing for evidence'

What is intriguing is it now appears that whatever evidence Jais purported it had was not even sufficient to press charges against the alleged offending parties. It now appears that Jais didn't have prima facie evidence. It was fishing for evidence in that raid, but in vain.

pkr taman ehsan selayang ceramah 020810 hasan ali Strangely enough, the Selangor executive councillor in charge of Islamic affairs, Hasan Ali ( right ), was quick to jump to the defence of Jais immediately, following the uproar over the raid. But in the first place, as the state execujtive councillor in charge of Islamic affairs, how come he was not kept informed of the raid?

Things came to a head and the dispute was referred to the palace. On Monday, His Royal Highness, the Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Alhaj, issued a press release.

It stated: "Jais has submitted to us the full report of the search carried out at the Dream Centre Complex, Section 13, Petaling Jaya, as well as the subsequent actions taken by Jais. We have thoroughly read in detail the said report and we are satisfied that the actions of Jais were correct and did not breach any laws enforceable in Selangor."

The three-page statement concluded by saying: "We command that Majlis Agama Islam Selangor and Jais always conduct thorough observations and take necessary actions without hesitation in line with the jurisdiction under the law."

The royal intervention is timely to defuse the situation. But if Jais, the Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (Mais) or even the exco member in charge of Islamic affairs had been mindful of conducting their affairs "in line with the jurisdiction under the law", then there would be less need to burden the palace to step in and exonerate their lack of thoroughness.

The central principle governing the Jais raid is about being thorough, about being judicious. It is not about religious policing. Jais and Hasan Ali need to learn the difference.

BOB TEOH is a retired journalist and faith-based writer. He is author of the book ‘ Allah - More Than Just a Word ' (2010).