The Let’s Fly with B1A4 special fan-meeting event held in Kuala Lumpur has begun stirring up heated controversy among Muslim netizens after a video of the B1A4 members and several fans showing friendly skinship went viral.

On January 11, a Malaysian media outlet called Sukan Star TV uploaded a video onto their official Facebook page with the title, “Malay girls molested on stage by K-Pop artist yesterday“, which ultimately resulted in over 1.6 million views, 43 thousand shares, and 27 thousand comments—most of which consist of hateful and controversial statements towards the fans seen in the viral clip.

In the first snippet of the video, member Sandeul is seen holding the hands of one of the fans while looking directly into her eyes with a bright smile, leaning in closer and closer until their faces are only an inch or two away from each other. The K-pop star is then seen laughing shyly as he stands back up and gives a gentle pat on the fan’s shoulder.

In the second snippet is Gongchan acting out a common scene from many Asian dramas, holding the fan’s left hand up with his right and his left hand up against an invisible wall, enclosing the fan while leaning in close to her face, somewhat like a kissing pose. He then pulls away and the two share a friendly hug before walking away.

The third and fourth snippets from the video portray members Jinyoung and Baro giving a back-hug to one fan and a forehead kiss to another.

The fans are seen being very ecstatic, happy, and somewhat nervous during this special event, which is what began fueling the controversial comments that are currently pouring online from angry netizens who are stating that it is frowned upon to be making gestures such as hugging, kissing, and touching when you follow Islamic beliefs.

Some of the top-voted comments on this viral video include, “We can’t blame the Koreans they don’t understand Islam laws. But blame the girl. Do not blame Islam for this,” “Don’t blame the K-pop artist. They don’t know our culture. Blame the fans who know what they should do and shouldn’t do. So it’s totally the girls fault,” “The title is so misleading! Certainly the girls weren’t being molested. These K-pop stars do the same thing in each fan meeting, they just want to show appreciation towards their fans. So we couldn’t really blame them because they wouldn’t have known the culture and religion in our country. Still, to use the word ‘dicabuli’ is quite harsh, don’t you think so?”

Other netizens included comments like, “Sorry but isn’t it weird? All the girls that are being touched are wearing tudung. You can see the stupidity and weakness of their faith,” “These girls are giving all of Islam a bad name and stupidity!” and, “I blame the girls themselves. Where do you put your pride as a Muslim girl?”

On the other hand, some netizens were trying to view the whole situation in an optimistic manner, leaving comments such as, “We should not blame the stars nor the fans. If anything, we should blame the event promoters for making them do this game,” or , “These girls were just too caught up in the moment. To call their actions a sin for hugging and being happy is too harsh.”

Check out the viral videos below:

Source: Sukan Star TV and The Rakyat Post