Jais officers hauled up to explain Bible Society raid
Meena Lakshana, fz.com
The Selangor government has sought a detailed explanation from the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) over the raid of the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) yesterday.
When contacted, state executive councillor for Islamic Affairs Sallehin Mukhyi (pic) said Jais officers involved in the raid were summoned to the state government today to provide an explanation over the raid.
“I have called and met the officers from Jais today. I have asked them to submit a report over the raid to the state government by the end of today,” he said.
However, he said he would refrain from commenting on the issue until the submission of the report and feedback from BSM.
Sallehin said Jais’ actions were carried out without consultation with the state executive council or the knowledge of Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.
“This is not a small issue. It affects the rights of people of other faiths so we have to be careful in these matters,” he said.
“We don’t want to spur one action to solve a problem but cause 10 other problems in its course,” he added.
Sallehin said the state government or Abdul Khalid will issue an official statement on the matter soon.
Human rights lawyers and state lawmakers have opined that Jais had gone beyond the ambit of the Federal Constitution by raiding the premises of the BSM in Damansara Kim yesterday.
Jais had raided the premises based on the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988, which prohibits the use of the word “Allah” and 35 other words by non-Muslims.
During the raid, 15 Jais personnel and two police officers had visited the BSM office in Damansara Kim, Petaling Jaya, without a search warrant or any authorisation letters.
The team had confiscated more than 300 copies of the bibles in Bahasa Malaysia and Iban.
BSM president Lee Min Choon and manager, Sinclair Wong, were also detained before being released at 4pm.
The raid follows a directive issued by new Jais director Ahmad Zaharin Mohd Saad, who said the state religious authorities would draw up a list of Selangor churches before writing to ask them to comply with Selangor’s Islamic laws on the matter.
