‘Allah’ ban against court order, Cabinet decision, Selangor told

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Jan 10, 2013

(The Malaysian Insider) – Lawyers in the “Allah CD” case have formally written to tell the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (MAIS) that the Selangor Sultan’s latest ban on the usage of “Allah” by non-Muslims is disrespectful of a 2009 High Court order and in conflict with a 2011 federal government decision on the matter.

In a letter to MAIS yesterday, the lawyers affixed documents to both decisions to remind the council that a settlement to the controversy had long been reached, despite the latest religious storm over the same issue.

“MAIS’s action, which is inconsistent and contrary to the order of the court, appears to belittle and disrespect the court decision,” the lawyers said in the letter signed by Annou Xavier, who is also a member of the Kuala Lumpur Catholic Lawyers’ Society (CLS).

The first document attached to the letter is a copy of the 2009 court order where Jill Ireland, a Sarawakian Christian, was granted permission to challenge the government’s previous confiscation of several of her religious CDs which bore the word “Allah”. The second document is a April 2011 circular to Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) chairman Bishop Ng Moon Hing that was signed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself, stating that Christians and those of other faiths can import and use bibles in any languages including Bahasa Malaysia.

In the run-up to the heated Sarawak state polls, the federal government had on April 2, 2011, issued a 10-point solution to the “Allah” controversy, allowing the publication and distribution of the AlKitab, the Malay-language Bible that it had impounded due to its usage of “Allah” to refer to the Christian God.

As such, Annou said that by suddenly banning non-Muslims in Selangor from using “Allah”, MAIS had not only contradicted both the court and federal government’s decisions, but had also contravened Article 11(3) of the Federal Constitution which, he said, stipulates that those of all other faiths in Malaysia had the right to conduct their religious practices freely.

“We hope MAIS will not prolong this issue of non-Muslims using ‘Allah’ in the media and instead respect the court decision as well as every individual’s right to freedom of religion,” the lawyer wrote.