Bar Council: Jais raid illegal, unconstitutional
The raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia violates Article 11(3) of the Federal Constitution, says Bar Council president Christopher Leong.
Anisah Shukry, FMT
The Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM), its seizure of Malay and Ibanese Bibles from the association, and the arrest of BSM’s leaders are illegal and unconstitutional, said the Bar Council.
The regulatory body of lawyers said that Jais, an Islamic enforcement agency, had no jurisdiction and powers over other religions or persons professing other faiths.
Bar Council president Christopher Leong said that Article 11(3) of the Federal Constitution provides each religion the space to be self-regulatory to facilitate inter-religious harmony.
“It is alarming that the religious body or an enforcement agency of one religion would claim to have jurisdiction or purview over other religions. This is not what is envisaged under the federal constitution,” said Leong in a statement yesterday.
He said Jais’s excuse that it had taken action according to the Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Amongst Muslims) Enactment No 1 of 1988 of Selangor was unacceptable as portions of the enactment were not supported by the constitution.
The enactment provides that state may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam.
But section 9(1) of the said enactment provides that a person commits an offence if he or she in any published writing, or public or broadcast speech or statement uses any of the words listed in Part I of the Schedule “pertaining to any non-Islamic religion”.
Similarly, section 9(2) provides that a person who is not a Muslim commits an offence if he uses any of the expressions listed in Part II of the Schedule.
Part I lists 25 Arabic words and Part II lists 10 Arabic phrases, including terms such as “Allah”, “Injil”, and “Nabi”.
“It is immediately apparent that the provisions of sections 9(1) and (2) are general in nature and ambit, and are not confined to the purpose stated in the preamble of the said Selangor enactment and to the limits prescribed in Article 11(4) of the Federal Constitution.
“These provisions make it an offence to merely use the listed words or phrases. They purport to be general blanket prohibitions and offences, irrespective of whether the words or phrases are used in the course, or for the purpose, of propagation of a non-Islamic religion to Muslims,” said Leong.
