KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 ― The Federal Territories Islamic Affairs Department (Jawi) urged Muslims in its sermon today to boycott reality shows for the sake of their children, claiming these programmes contain “negative elements” that are ill-suited for Muslim consumption.

In its warning against television and radio programming that are not Shariah-compliant, the sermon claimed that the “negative elements” in reality TV include “vulgar jokes”, reveal intimate body parts, and show cross-dressing men.

“In fact, reality-based programmes also introduce negative elements such as vulgar jokes, the revealing of aurat, men dressed in women’s clothing and so on,” said the Jawi sermon.

“Those are actually forms of hedonism that are created for the sake of destroying the minds of the Muslim [community], especially our youths.”

“Safeguard our children from enjoying mindless entertainment and educate them to like entertainment that are based on the tenets of Islam. Let us begin to boycott such negative programmes on TV and radio,” urged the sermon.

The sermon, titled “Jihad against falsehood”, listed “negative elements in the mass media” as one of the four “falsehoods” threatening Muslims in this country.

“In fact, if we really look at it, there are many among such programmes that report on the slander among artistes, spread gossip or insult, act as tattletales or try to pit one artiste against another, revealing an artiste’s embarrassment and so on,” said the sermon’s text.

The other three were “slander within the social media”, “wayward teachings and thinking”, and “superstition and bid’ah”, the last referring to new “innovations” after the times of Prophet Muhammad that are forbidden by Islam.

The sermon claimed that slanderous news are being disseminated through social media to break apart the unity of Muslims, disturbing Putrajaya’s administration and creating an unstable political situation in Malaysia.

“If we are careful in accepting certain news and always verifying them first, surely the agenda of certain parties who wish to see Muslims fight with each other would have failed,” it suggested.