Keep calm, let authorities probe socks issue, says Religious Affairs Minister

PETALING JAYA: Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Mohd Na'im Mokhtar has urged Muslims to keep calm and let authorities investigate over the controversial socks issue.

"Give trust to the authorities to conduct their investigations and to determine the true cause and I hope those involved do not repeat this after their apology, as well as involve 3R (race, religion, royalty) issues," he said.

Na'im said the KK Super Mart and vendors involved in the selling of socks with the word “Allah’ printed on them must learn from this, adding that the issue was a very sensitive one, more so during the holy month of Ramadan.

"I am saddened and disappointed over what had happened. We are in the month of Ramadan and there are those that say to not be overly sensitive with the issue of Allah being printed on socks but this can’t be left on its own.

"Allah is our Creator and the act of putting Allah on our feet is a huge insult that Muslims can’t ignore.

"The apology has been made but surely we hope that in the future KK Super Mart do not take such things lightly and any audit department should inspect goods that have been brought in from abroad," Bernama quoted him as saying.

He was met by reporters at the Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin mosque earlier on Sunday (March 17).

He added that such a sensitive matter was "hard to forgive".

"It is extremely sensitive. The Muslims must be given the space needed (to forgive this act)," he said.

He also said that he had instructed the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) to summon the KK Super Mart management to discuss the matter.

The management of the store, during a press conference on Saturday (March 17) had apologised for its oversight in selling socks with the word Allah printed on them.

"As such I humbly apologise to all Malaysians, especially those from the Muslim faith," said KK Super Mart founder Datuk Seri Dr KK Chai.

He said product management of the product concerned was done entirely by a vendor via a space rental system at its convenience stores without the supervision of KK Super Mart employees.

Chai said inspections were carried out at 800 of its branches nationwide and only three outlets carried the socks and 14 pairs had the word on them.

Also present at Saturday’s press conference was Soh Chin Huat, the owner of the vendor company Xin Jian Chang Sdn Bhd.

"The socks were imported from China and were among sacks containing 1,200 pairs each of different designs, so I overlooked and did not do a full inspection of each item. The incident has opened my eyes to be more careful when bringing in products from abroad and I apologise for this," said Soh.