PETALING JAYA: The Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) has recently released a mobile app that allows the public to easily report any crimes that contravene syariah laws.

Its director Datuk Haris Kasim told The Star that Jais lunched the app to make the Department more approachable to the public.

"The application, which was launched Tuesday, is simple and easy to use.

"Once installed on a smartphone, people can send over information and make reports to Jais very easily," he said.

The Hotline JAIS app is currently only available for Android devices and can be downloaded from the Google Play store.

Haris said the app would enable the public to reach Jais easily, in turn making it more difficult for wrongdoers to carry out their "activities".

However, he pointed out that complainants would need to provide substantial information before their report was acted on.

"They will need to fill up a form which requires certain details. If the form is incomplete, we cannot go ahead with the inquiry," he said.

Haris added that proof of any alleged crime needed to be provided as well.

"Take for example they want to report on deviant teaching – they need to give us the location, the actual time and when it happened," he said, adding that photographic proof would also be accepted.

Haris emphasised that the app was not only for lodging complaints, and could also be used to obtain information on anything related to syariah law and Islam.

"Even if you have syariah-related questions which we cannot answer or act on, the app provides a list of bodies and organisations one can approach to get the answer," he said.

"We just want to be more approachable. We are doing our best to reduce and eventually eradicate activities that are wrong, and by the launch of this app, we hope people who intend to do wrong will think twice.

"Once a complaint is submitted via the app, we can immediately deploy a team to the location," he said.

Haris added that the application would continually be upgraded and improved over time.