LOCAL authorities will not take further action against the owner of a self-service launderette which was only open to Muslims, following his decision to issue a public apology and a pledge to cease his discriminatory practice.

Located in Johor’s royal town of Muar, the launderette had garnered local and international media attention this week after a photo of a sign stating that only Muslim patrons were welcome, became viral.

The incident earned the launderette owner a scathing attack from Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, who demanded that the shop be open to all races, after which the owner issued an apology to Malaysians and the people of Johor.

Fairuz Nawwar Shamsusah, an officer with the Muar Municipal Council’s corporate communications department, said it would not interfere in the matter as the sultan had already issued a decree.

He said the launderette owner has obtained all the necessary licensing, and therefore no further action will be taken against him.

“In terms of monitoring the business, it is not within the jurisdiction of the council to monitor the operations of the launderette because they have already followed all the business regulations such as applying for licensing, and we’ve approved their license. So we don’t continually monitor their activities,” he said.

The state’s religious affairs exco Abdul Mutalip Abdul Rahim said his department had gone to the ground to advise all launderette owners not to do anything that would be prejudicial to people of other races and faiths.

“We have advised all the launderettes. Don’t use such methods. Don’t cause prejudice among the races and religions.”

The owner of Elit Laundry told The Malaysian Insight yesterday that he decided to impose the Muslim-only ruling following requests from his regular customers, almost all of whom were Muslims.

He denied being a racist, and said he was merely doing what he believed was his responsibility of a good Muslim.

Sultan Ibrahim had labelled the launderette owner as “sick”, saying that there was no place for religious extremism in his state.

His criticism of the launderette’s Muslims-only policy received praise from Malaysians, many of whom lamented the rising threat of Islamisation in multicultural Malaysia. – September 28, 2017.