Malaysia’s king called for an investigation on Tuesday, criticizing a local supermarket chain for selling socks emblazoned with the word “Allah” in one of its stores.

“Strong measures must be taken against any party found guilty,” Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, an influential billionaire sultan known for his outspokenness who was installed as king in January, wrote on Facebook after an investigation by authorities, AFP and Agerpres reported. .

In Malaysia, a constitutional monarchy where the heads of the ruling families of the country’s nine ancient kingdoms elect one of their own every five years, Islam is the official religion with the king as leader. Muslims make up more than two-thirds of the country’s 34 million inhabitants.

This unusual royal rebuke calls on Malaysians to cultivate social harmony and refrain from discussing sensitive topics such as religion, ethnicity or the monarchy.

Religion and ethnic issues are hot topics in Malaysia, which experienced bloody race riots in 1961.

Muslims found the sale of this product offensive

Socks emblazoned with ‘Allah’ were put up for sale at KK Super Mart, causing a stir after pictures of them went viral on social media. Muslims considered selling this product offensive, especially during Ramadan.

“We take this matter seriously. Immediate action has been taken to stop the sale of the said socks,” KK Super Mart apologized in a statement last Wednesday.

The supplier of the socks, Xin Jian Chang, in turn apologized, explaining that “the problematic socks were part of a larger batch of 18,000 pairs” ordered by the China-based company.

“Contrary to initial information, only five pairs of socks have been confirmed to contain the disputed word,” the supplier said.