SELANGOR MB RETURNS SEIZED BIBLES TO CHRISTIAN

BY KAMARUL AZMAN

KUALA LUMPUR, The Pakatan Rakyat Selangor government returned today the Christian bibles containing the word “Allah” to the Bible Society of Malaysia confiscated by its state Islamic enforcers in January.
Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali was pictured giving back the Malay and Iban-language bibles to the Christian bookstore at Istana Alam Shah in Klang earlier this morning.
“An amicable resolution to the issue of the seizure of the Malaysia Language Bibles containing the word Allah,” Azmin tweeted from his @AzminAli account, attaching a photograph of the ceremony.
Using a 1988 Selangor state law that prohibits non-Muslims from using “Allah” to refer to God, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) carried out a surprise raid of BSM’s Selangor office on January 2, and seized over 300 copies of the bible in Malay and Iban.
After months of waiting for the bibles’ release, the BSM’s then president Lee Min Choon said in April that BSM would move its headquarters to the federal government-ruled Kuala Lumpur to get “better protection” and avoid future bible seizures.
The new BSM president Bishop Datuk Moon Hing told The Sabah Insider.Net  Online last month that the society had not decided to move its office out of Selangor.
The Attorney-General said last June that the bibles, which were seized during Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s administration, were not controlled items and did not constitute a national security issue.
Despite Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet issuing a 10-point solution in 2011 that allowed the distribution of Christian bibles in the Malay, Indonesian and indigenous languages, a Sabahan Christian’s religious compact discs (CDs) and books were confiscated last month at the second Kuala Lumpur International Airport (klia2).
After the Christian materials were returned to the Sabahan last week, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup said Putrajaya will draw up new guidelines to ensure Christian materials destined for Sabah and Sarawak are no longer wrongfully seized.

-

No comments:

Post a Comment