Mufti offers Advice on Riding in a Taxi, Grab or Uber car

The Federal Territories Mufti declared yesterday in writing, on the official FT Mufti website, that riding in a taxi, Grab or Uber car could be considered an act of “khalwat”, ie. excessive closeness between persons of opposite genders who are not “mahram” (unmarriageable kin). Apparently, the inside of a vehicle is no different from gardens and parks, in a room or hotel; according to the mufti, Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri, the same rule applies.

Zulkifli advises that passengers cancel the booking if it turns out that the driver is of the opposite sex, or the driver could vice versa reject the request, even though he acknowledges in the same line that this would cause the driver’s account to be suspended.

Before our readers - especially those who are not from around here and are unaccustomed to these sorts of declaration from our religious leaders – get their panties in a knot, Zulkifli did offer a solution. The rule is suspended if these two criteria are met:

1. the passenger sits at the back and they do not engage in conversation more than the necessary.
2. the driver doesn’t take a lonely route, where acts of sin could be committed in secrecy.

Read the original article here if you have nothing better to do the next 10 minutes.

We're not sure how the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) intends to enforce this not-in-the-front-seat-no-talking rule, though, if it intends to at all. Perhaps its members will wait at the destination to see if the passenger alights from the front passenger side or demand to know if they spoke throughout the journey.

Automology is just an automotive blog, not a political one, so there is no more to write about this matter....we will only say that when the Malaysian Censors pulled Beauty and the Beast from the cinemas (another incident that thrust our country into the not-so-flattering limelight), those of us who wanted to watch it badly enough simply shrugged because we knew we would be able to find a way to watch it if we wanted to, even though it may be through less than legal ways.

So, if we REALLY wanted to engage in acts of sin with our taxi, Grab or Uber driver, we would be able to find a "safe", undetectable way to do so...because we Malaysians are surprising artful when we need to be.