“There is nothing to be afraid of if you are not doing anything wrong. So what is wrong with the app?” the department’s director Haris Kasim told FMT.

He was responding to criticism that the app would encourage spying and lead to embarrassing certain quarters.

Jais had last week launched the app with a feature that enables the public to report activities that are considered wrong (haram) in Islam. The department said that the intention was to make it easier for people to report such wrongdoings, in the hope that it would then be more difficult for wrongdoers to carry out any such activity.

Haris stated that the app would make one think twice before committing offences like khalwat (close proximity).

“That is why we called the app Amar, which is from ‘Amar maaruf nahi mungkar’,” Haris said, referring to the phrase which translates to “enjoining good and forbidding evil” in English.

He revealed that Jais’ standard operating procedure (SOP) for the app would require every report to be scrutinised in detail.

“This is to filter out any false allegations and prevent people from being humiliated publicly,” Haris said, adding that only when this process is completed, will the department begin investigations on the complaint.

Haris was previously reported as saying that complainants would need to provide substantial information before the department acted on the report.

Complainants will also need to fill up a form, and if it is not completed in full, Jais will not go ahead with the inquiry.

“I do not want people to snoop on others.”