Being caught alone with a person of the opposite sex, you are not married to, in a secluded area is a religious crime in Malaysia. It is called 'khalwat' and is considered a sin by the Muslim religious department. The department has created vigilante groups who conduct raids at parks, hotel rooms and peoples homes. They act as moral guardians of the Islamic religion. Lately, these vigilantes have taken to videoing the raids and interviewing those caught on camera.And as Vanitha Nadaraj reveals the videos are now available on the for anyone to watch.

This video clip is on You Tube. It shows a frightened young man and woman forced to answer very private questions…such as where was his hand? Were you unzipped? Was his private part touching yours?

The couple have been caught by the Religious Departments' Muslim raiding team, for being intimate. The video clip has had tens of thousands of hits and it's not the only one.

There are several video clips like this, of unmarried people being caught in various stages of intimacy….all on the Internet.

Thirty-five-year old Ahmad had a close call. He ran away before he could get caught by the vigilantes. He was alone with his girlfriend in her house at the time.
"We were having a chat upstairs in a Malay district. It was about 9. I wasn't in a comfortable zone because that was a Malay area. So that time when I was talking to her, I had a funny feeling -that. I had better get out. It was that time I heard somebody making noises outside. So I didn't wait, I just opened the window and I jumped out of the window, it wasn't that high. Down, and I ran towards the main road where I parked my bike. I knew they were chasing me, trying to catch me. Got onto my motorcycle without my shoes and I went back home,"

Ahmad, who is an executive in Kuala Lumpur, is angry with the way the religious departments are handling this issue.

"What I'm not happy is that they go for the small fry. Ministerial level and top government officials - these are the guys they don't catch. This is what I'm not happy about. Why do they do all this? That means there's double standards. And then there's another thing also. Officials may be one or two, but they'll recruit three of four people like factory workers, gardeners or just security guards, to follow them to make a team. Which I feel is not right. These people should be registered with the religious departments if they want to do a raid,"
A group of Muslim women, called the Sisters in Islm believe the raids should stop altogether. Norhayati Kaprawi argues they are un-Islamic.

"Because Islam forbids any action or any attempt to spy on others. Not only spying, now they are taking this video. If all this while oral statements and written statements by their religious officers are already enough, why the need of videotaping. And now it has been abused and they (videos) have been disseminated to the public, so they should take responsibility and put a stop to this insane practice"

The religious department ignore repeated requests for interviews. However in public statements they believe the raids are cleaning the streets of Sin and are protecting young Muslim from making mistakes.

The raids, they insist, are upholding Islamic law and the teachings of the Quran.

However Sisters in Islam strong disagrees.

"It is explicitly mentioned in the Quran that if someone goes to another person's house, that person has to give greeting, salam three times and if there is no answer, then he or she should leave. And so there is no spying allowed and that is very clear. Those who call for this spying, claim that this spying could help reduce the vice. But the question is does the means justify the ends. Does going against the Quranic injunction justify your fervour in trying to curb vice. They have to reconcile with that,"

The religion department believes that by publicly shaming people it will stop others from acting in the same way.

However, Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor, a Muslim lawyer says videoing the raids is a violation of Islamic law.
"Although the raiding party had video recorded the raids to have a fool-proof case, but such doing goes to the very grain of the teaching of Islam. Prophet Muhammad is not asking us to commit sins but he has made it clear for us not to pick the faults of others. By video recording the raids, more so when recordings leak and make its way to YouTube, it is actually an attempt to shame a private individual publicly rather than really abhorring sins. It is no doubt acts of such nature is against the teachings of Islam and a clear violation of human rights,"