PETALING JAYA: Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) chief executive officer Wan Saiful Wan Jan has lashed out at "religious officers" for "checking" his hotel room supposedly for khalwat (close proximity) activities.
Calling the raid "stupid," Wan Saiful said he had checked into the budget hotel with his mother in Parit Buntar, Perak, on Wednesday night.
Several hours later, he said a group of men claiming to be from the Islamic religious department knocked loudly on his door at about 3.20am Thursday.
After they showed me their name cards, they insisted on coming into the room, supposedly to conduct a ‘check’, even though I told them my mother was asleep.
“As it is, they were disturbing us at an ungodly hour, plus they had no regard for our privacy,” he explained in a Facebook post.
Wan Saiful, a columnist with The Star Online, questioned whether the individuals were really from the religious department, criticising them for singling out his room for ‘checks’ just because it was in a budget hotel.
"Do they check five-star hotels? Or the homes of prominent personalities? I’m not even certain they are from the religious department.
“What I do know is that it was an interference and a stupid thing to do,” he wrote.
Wan Saiful later checked with the hotel management, and found out that the group had raided three rooms, all ending with the number 8.
“Mine was room 308. Stupid,” he said in a separate post, attaching a photo of a name card belonging to a member of the raiding party.
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