DCM hopes City Mosque will lift ban soon on tourists

Kota Kinabalu: Deputy Chief Minister cum Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christina Liew (pic) hopes the City Mosque management will lift the temporary ban soon on visitors visiting the iconic mosque. "We have had a discussion with the City Mosque management and hopefully they will open it within these few days," she said.

She said the City Mosque is a very attractive place and many tourists like to go there, and it wouldn't be wise to close it down permanently to tourists, but tourists must observe the conducts and behave themselves when they visit places of worship.

Commenting on the two tourists from China who paid the fine of RM25 each for dancing on the concrete fence of the City Mosque in Likas last Saturday, Liew said what the duo did was wrong.

"I hope this will be the last time the incident happened in Sabah because as much as we welcome tourists to Sabah, we also need them to understand that certain conducts are inappropriate and unacceptable," she said.

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She said the ministry is currently drafting the circular on the dos and don'ts when visiting Sabah, adding that if time permits, she would like to meet tourism industry players and have a dialogue with them.

On the plans to erect multilingual signboards at places of worships, she said, they plan to do so at all places of attraction and not only places of worship.

"Most important is they must observe the dos and don'ts.

"They must behave appropriately. They are welcome to Sabah and enjoy the beautiful places the State has to offer, but there are certain rules and guidelines that they must observe," she said.

The City Mosque management had ordered a temporary ban on tourists visiting the mosque following the incident.

Mosque Chairman Datuk Jamal Sakaran was also reported as saying that the management decided that all express buses, Grab vehicles and taxis were not allowed to bring in tourists to the mosque and its surrounding areas, except for taxis registered with the mosque.

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The two tourists, who are dance teachers by profession, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Cindy Mc Juce Balitus on Wednesday to committing the indecent behaviour at the place at 4.30pm on June 23.

The tourists, who were not represented, apologised and regretted their act, saying they were not aware of the culture here. - Sherell Jeffrey

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