SHAH ALAM: Fourteen people representing 10 Non-Governmental Organisations submitted a memorandum to the Selangor palace this morning to stop a possible organising of a beer festival in the state.
The group was seeking the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah's intervention on the matter in preventing the 'Better Beer Festival 2017' from being held in the state.
This comes after the organisers' application to hold the event, scheduled to run on Oct 6 and 7 at Publika Shopping Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, was rejected by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).
The group's spokesman Nazilah Idris said the NGOs were worried that organisers of the craft beer drinking fest would choose Selangor as their next location to hold the event.
"Our protest and submission of the memorandum to the Selangor palace today is a warning to the organisers not to hold the event in the state.
"They plan to do it in KL but was denied by DBKL. We don't want them to come here. We are worried they might do so because a state exco member has said that the state is open to such festival and a Selangor lawmaker had even ridiculed protests against the event," she said.
Nazilah is the chairman of Selangor Community Complaints Bureau.
1Malaysia NGOs Coalition president Nazli Aziz Yeop said such having such festival held openly in public was disrespectful to Islam and the Malay community.
He said the NGOs were also saddened that some Muslim politicians even supported the organising of such event, saying that they had gone against their own religion, which prohibited Muslims from taking part in activities involving the consumption of alcohol.
Meanwhile, the group's memorandum was received by Sultan Sharafuddin's bodyguard Sergeant Major Aznan Din at the entrance of Istana Kayangan, here.
He promised to forward the document to the Sultan's senior private secretary Datuk Mohamad Munir Bani.
The NGOs are also expected to hold a protest against the festival at the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque, here after Friday prayers today.