The Islamic Development Department (Jakim) is verifying claims that The Weeknd’s two concerts at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on 4 and 5 November carried elements that contradict Islamic teachings, New Straits Times reported.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for religious affairs Dr Zulkifli Hasan said Jakim’s research division is in close contact with the secretariat of the Central Agency Committee for Filming Applications and Foreign Artistes’ Performances (Puspal).
The engagement is meant to verify the claims and to establish whether the two shows complied with the conditions attached to their approval, he said. No finding has been announced.
Zulkifli said Islam strictly prohibits any form of worship or veneration directed at anything other than Allah. “All parties must ensure that artistic performances do not cause confusion regarding matters of faith, morality and religious sensitivities in Malaysia,” he said, adding that action would follow the law and verified facts, without saying what form that action would take.
Pas raised the issue a day before the minister’s statement, questioning the use of a giant golden statue and a dance routine featuring women in red robes, both of which it described as resembling worship rituals, FMT noted.
The centrepiece of the stage was a giant golden female robot sculpture designed by Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama, Scoop wrote. The shows, part of The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn Tour, featured Japanese acts Creepy Nuts and Yousuke Yukimatsu as guest performers.
Pas Youth dakwah and Islamic advocacy committee chairman Mohamed Sukri Omar said the party was concerned that such elements could be normalised in the name of entertainment. He claimed the show drew on a fictional work about a civilisation that worshipped machines as gods.
“Society, particularly Muslims, must play a collective role in preventing events containing such elements from being normalised in the country,” he said.
Puspal vets applications by foreign artistes and sets the conditions under which approved shows may be staged. Jakim’s review now turns on whether the approved production matched what was performed on stage.
New Straits Times put the opening-night crowd at an estimated 65,000, and the debate over the stage design spread across social media in the days that followed.
The minister did not say when the review would conclude, or which conditions the concert was approved under.
