Unmarried Muslim couples in Kuala Selangor now have to sit separately if they want to watch movie in local cinemas, after a new regulation was raised by local councillors from PAS.

The Kuala Selangor District Council has required a local cinema to put up notices reminding its customers of the new regulation.

China Press today published an exclusive report claiming that the district council has included the new regulation as a condition for a local cinema to renew its licence.

The Chinese daily learnt that the cinema had received a letter from the district council in April which approved the renewal but stated that the cinema operator must put up the notices.

The cinema has since put up a Malay language notice which states “Attention: Muslims who are not Muhrim are prohibited from sitting next to each other” ( Bagi orang Islam yang bukan Muhrim dilarang duduk bersebelahan ).

( Muhrim is an Islamic term which means close kin that one is forbidden to marry.)

Kuala Selangor councillor P Thirumoorthy told China Press that the majority of the cinema patrons are Malays, hence the councillors from PAS demanded that the cinema put up the notice.

However, he claimed that this is not a policy but just a reminder for Muslims to avoid being caught by the religious authorities.

He called on non-Muslims not to be worried because the notice is similar to the reminder put up at lottery shops to remind Muslims from buying lottery tickets, which does not affect the non-Muslims at all.