Utusan: Group enticing Muslims using comics, books with ‘Allah’

(MM) – Young Malays are being targeted by a non-Muslim movement using free comics and materials that liberally use the word “Allah”, an Utusan Malaysia report alleged today.

The Malay language daily also claimed this confirmed the local Muslim community’s fear that the Arabic word at the centre of a Muslim-Christian tug of war would be misused, alluding to expressed concerns that the group’s faith would be jeopardised by non-Muslim use of the Arabic word for God.

“Without feeling any guilt, the group makes Malays and Islam as a target,” Utusan Malaysia’s report said, pointing out that it was illegal in Malaysia for non-Muslims to propagate their religion to Muslims.

According to the newspaper, the purportedly non-Muslim movement was distributing reading material that contained interpretations of an unspecified holy book bearing the word “Allah”.

The books, which the newspaper said use the word “Allah” extensively, also referred to Nabi Isa – a prophet in Islam – according to the movement’s own beliefs.

The movement also allegedly gave out comic books detailing the life of Nabi Isa, Utusan Malaysia said, adding that it indirectly contradicts with the Al-Quran, the Muslims’ holy book.

The comic books did not name its publisher on the front cover but instead carries a note on Article 11 of the Federal Constitution governing freedom of religion, the Malay-language daily added.

But the newspaper failed to identify the group or the religion that it was alleged to be disseminating.

Instead, Utusan Malaysia only said it believed the group to be led by a man purported to be a US citizen who spoke the Malay language fluently, as well as several locals from Sabah.

Utusan Malaysia alleged that the movement had approached youths in the Selangor capital of Shah Alam last week, but said it has actively sought to propagate its religion since early this year.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed in Malaysia under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution that enshrines the right of Malaysians to profess and practise their faith, but proselytisation to Muslims can be restricted or controlled by state laws and federal laws for the federal territories.

The Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Amongst Muslims) Enactment 1988 that is in use in several states including Selangor, for instance, bans the spread of religions other than Islam to the Muslim community.

Today’s report by Utusan Malaysia is the latest on the topic from the Malay language newspaper, even as the country’s religions continue to debate about the non-Muslims’ right to use the word “Allah” that some Muslims in Malaysia believe is exclusive to Islam.

In October, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Ministry’s decision to ban the use of the word in the Catholic Church weekly Herald was justified, saying that the use of the word “Allah” was not integral to the practice of the Christian faith.

The ruling – which overturned an earlier High Court decision that the ban was unconstitutional – has since sparked persisting concerns over how it would affect the rights of Christians and other religious minorities, despite the government’s assurance that the judgment was restricted to the Herald.

The decision has also led to growing complaints by Christians in Sabah and Sarawak, who consider it to be an imposition on their freedom of religion as well as a violation of the 18- and 20-point agreements that the two states signed with peninsular Malaysia.

The Catholic Church has since appealed to the country’s top court this week for clarity on the religious row that has drawn deep lines between Malaysia’s non-Muslim minorities and its 60 per cent Muslim population, with the Federal Court fixing February 24 next year to hear the application for appeal.

According to a 2010 census, Muslims are Malaysia’s largest religious group. Malaysia’s Muslim population is largely Malay, with Article 160 of the Federal Constitution defining Malays as one who professes Islam.