Just recently, a convenience store located in Manjoi, Perak was thrust into the spotlight after a certain non-governmental organisation (NGO) known as Jabat decided to take matters into their own hands. A Facebook post went viral depicting a group of men harassing the staff at the store to remove the alcohol sold in the shop.
Source: facebook
Source: facebook
They were objecting loudly to the sale of alcohol in their area as the township has a majority of Malay Muslims who were forbidden to touch alcohol. They demanded that the store’s staff empty the fridge of alcohol and stood watch as an employee started taking out the bottles and cans.
In the video that was taken on May 24, some of the men at the scene can be heard saying that they were recording the whole process as they did not want to be accused of physically harming the staff or the items in the store. A few of them said, “It’s not like we want to do any damage to the store but if they refused to remove the alcohol then we will have to smash it. They don’t want to listen when we are asking them nicely to do so.”
Source: facebook
Source: facebook
Another young man asked for confirmation, “If there is alcohol being sold in this store then we aren’t allowed to buy other things from here also, right?”. Several of them confirmed that this was true. It seems that after the store had removed the offending alcohol, the group headed to the police station to lodge a report as they want to do it legally.
In another video, a spokesman and few others gathered around while holding copies of the report. They announced that they had successfully stopped the sale of alcohol in Manjoi, which consisted of 97% Malay Muslims. The spokesman also reminded other stores that they should take note and be considerate of this issue.
Source: facebook
Source: facebook
However, their actions were hotly debated by netizens with some of them praising the group while others were condemning them. Several fellow Muslims disagreed with them, saying that the fridge was already labelled as non-halal and they should also respect other non-Muslims in the area although they were a minority. It was also said that the people of Manjoi had tried to tell the store to stop selling alcohol before this but the convenience store would not listen to them.
Watch the videos here:
Source: Facebook
What do you think of their actions?
Also read: Malaysians Outraged Over ‘Muslim Only’ Laundry, But Here’s What Johor Mufti Has to Say
