From one Aliff controversy to another: local band Alif Satar and the Locos were set to perform at St John’s Hyde Park in London, UK at the end of April and the show has been advertised on their social media since early April.
However, Malaysians found out that the venue the band performed at turned out to be a church and thus the members, especially the lead singer, received a lot of backlash online after a video of the show went viral. The TikTok user, who posted the viral video, even went as far as to accuse Alif of immoral acts at a place of worship but that’s not exactly what happened.
In a now-deleted TikTok post, the uploader accused Alif of hosting a disco party at a church during his band’s performance at St John’s Hyde Park over the weekend. As seen in the screenshot above, the “Pulau” star quickly responded to the original poster’s video saying, “It’s okay bro. You wouldn’t know.” Of course, the reply wasn’t enough to clarify anything nor did it address the accusations being made against Alif and his band.
Fortunately, the singer’s friend, who is believed to be part of the event’s organising committee, came forward to explain the whole situation. Taking to his Instagram, photographer Zaidan Zainuddin clarified that the church where Alif Satar and the Locos performed also served as a Community Centre/Event space. Simply put, the venue is multipurpose. “I was surprised as well when I saw the show’s venue but after learning that this place has no cross depicted since it’s an Anglican church, I started to understand [why it was chosen],” he wrote.
The cameraman added that a mosque should also serve as a community centre ─ a place for people of all religions to gather for events, not just for prayer. “Why are we [Malaysian Muslims] so narrow-minded to think that non-Muslims should not enter a mosque or Muslims should not enter a church? As I said before, Alif is not stupid at making decisions for his performance venues.”
As seen above, netizens agreed with Zaidan Zainuddin’s post saying that it’s pretty normal for churches in the UK to host events such as concerts, thrift events, campaigns and many more. Others said that people who criticised the singer are mostly those who are ignorant due to their upbringing and even Alif Satar himself “liked” the post, indicating his agreement with his friend’s statement.
At the time of writing, neither Alif Satar nor members of his band have released an official statement regarding the controversy.
