An imam saw the unthinkable when he caught a fellow mosque committee member watching pornography in a mosque, a sacred place of worship.
However, he found himself getting the boot after reporting the incident to the mosque’s management.
Caught mosque’s secretary watching porn
According to Berita Harian, the incident took place on Dec 27 at a mosque in Melaka.
The imam, Muhammad Adhan Adnan, took a close to two-minute long clip which showed the man viewing pornography on a computer in a room, believed to be the mosque’s office.
The man was so engrossed with the video that he only became aware that he was being recorded when Adnan knocked on the room’s window, causing him to panic and change the screen’s browser to another website.
He then came out of the room and denied claims or wrongdoing when Adnan confronted him.
In the clip, Adnan could be heard saying, “This is a mosque, two individuals with me are witnesses to the marriage because there is a bride and groom who are getting married this morning. This recording is not edited or uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology.”
He also claimed that the man is the mosque’s secretary and a member of a political party.
Shown the exit
While the matter was reportedly supposed to be discussed the following week, according to State Religious affairs executive councillor Rahmad Mariman, the mosque decided to act first.
In a Facebook post dated Jan 22, Adnan shared a screenshot of a message he received, where the mosque’s chairman told him to resign for damaging the mosque’s reputation by exposing its secretary.
Adnan defended himself by arguing that he filmed the man only for the reference of the authorities and never intended to circulate it online.
He also claimed that “irresponsible parties” were the ones who shared the clip on social media.
Slammed mosque’s ‘spinelessness’
After resigning from his post, Adnan criticised the mosque management’s lack of moral willpower to take action against the secretary in his resignation letter.
“No one from the mosque came to my defense as an imam when many accused me, twisted the facts, and even cursed me for trying to expose wrongdoing that took place in the mosque,” he wrote.
