PAS VP: Jais raid belittles Muslims’ faith

(MM) – Selangor Islamic authorities’ controversial raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) over the “Allah” row only serves to portray Muslims’ faith as painfully fragile, PAS vice president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said today.

While commending authorities for their concern over Muslim apostasy, the PAS leader said the manner in which the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) went about tackling the problem by enforcing a state ban on non-Muslims use of “Allah” was misguided.

“It begs the question of whether the faith of Muslims in Malaysia is so fragile that the use of these terms by others can lead to their apostasy,” he said in a statement today.

Pointing out that Malaysia was unique in that it was the only country in the world to regulate the use of “Allah” and other terms it deemed to be exclusive to Islam, Tuan Ibrahim said the real solution to apostasy was to strengthen the faith of Muslims rather than trying to control the religions of others.

“It is impossible for authorities to restrict the usage of the terms, especially with the rapid development of new media. Anyone can easily write and propagate their information,” he added.

Today, he further questioned the inconsistent application of the “Allah” ban, pointing out that its use was only barred in the peninsula but allowed in both Sabah and Sarawak despite the presence of Muslims there.

Islam is also the state religion of Sabah.

“If the ‘Allah’ issue truly is about faith, policy should be applied to all states instead of selectively allowing and prohibiting its usage.

“As such, the ‘Allah’ issue more about politics than religion,” Tuan Ibrahim continued.

The PAS lawmaker said authorities would be better off reinforcing the faith of Muslims by increasing the availability of religious lessons if it indeed wanted to address Muslim apostasy.

Jais together with police yesterday raided the BSM office in Petaling Jaya where it seized over 300 copies of the AlKitab Malay language bible and the Iban version, Bup Kudus. Two society officials were also arrested.

Yesterday’s raid followed the Islamic department’s announcement last week that it planned to instruct churches in the state to cease using “Allah” in their worship, as part of a state law and royal decree limiting its use to Islam.

The Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988, passed by the then Barisan Nasional state government, prohibits non-Muslims in Selangor from using 35 Arabic words and phrases in their faith, including “Allah”, “Nabi” (prophet), “Injil” (gospel) and “Insya’Allah” (God willing).

Temperatures flared after Jais announced plans to clamp down on churches in the state that used the Arabic word, even as the so-called “Allah” row remains unresolved four years after it shocked the nation and led to the worst religious strife in the country’s history.

The ongoing legal dispute between the government and the Catholic Church over its right to print the word “Allah” in the Herald’s Bahasa Malaysia section is still pending before the Federal Court, which is set to hear arguments from both sides on February 24 before deciding on whether it will hear an appeal by the Catholic Church.