Malaysian group urges ban on Gwen Stefani concert

KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Reuters) Malaysia should pull the plug on the Kuala Lumpur leg of US singer Gwen Stefani's upcoming Asian tour because of her indecent dressing and obscenity, a Muslim students' group said today.

The 10,000-strong National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students said Stefani's Aug. 21 concert, which is part of her 'Sweet Escape' tour, would clash with local Asian and Islamic values.

''Her video clips promoting the event are too obscene,'' Mohamad Hilmi Ramli, the group's president, told Reuters. ''We want the organisers to cancel the concert, failing which we will ask the authorities to intervene.'' Ethnic Malays, who are by definition Muslims, make up just over half of Malaysia's 26 million people. Ethnic Chinese and Indians, who are mostly Buddhists, Christians or Hindus, form sizeable minorities.

Hilmi also criticised Malaysian mobile phone firm Maxis Communications for promoting the concert.

''Maxis has been staging a series of foreign acts ... to make a profit and to expose our young generation to things such as moral decay,'' he said.

Maxis officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Reuters RJ GC0955