Repeal all unconstitutional religious enactments, Catholic lawyers say

(MM) – All federal and state law should be harmonised with the Federal Constitution to grant very individual equal right to practice their faiths according to the precepts of the own religion, a Catholic lawyers group said today.

The Catholic Lawyers’ Society (CLS) Kuala Lumpur said it is necessary to repeal or amend laws that are not in line with the Federal Constitution, “to avoid perpetual confusion and uncertainty” over the right of each religious group to conduct their worship in the country.

“There must be clarity and certainty in the laws affecting race and religion to prevent conflicts between the different religious groups in Malaysia,” CLS Kuala Lumpur president Viola De Cruz Silva said in a statement today.

“The CLS welcomes calls to amend the 1988 Selangor State Enactment but will go further and request that the enactment and like enactments in other states be harmonised with the Federal Constitution.

“Lawmakers should protect the rights of all citizens of the country and uphold the Federal Constitution,” she added.

Religious tensions were reignited last week, when officers from the Selangor Islamic Department and police raided the Bible Society of Malaysia office, confiscating 300 copies of the bibles in the Malay and Iban languages, containing the word “Allah”.

Religious officials claimed they were empowered to conduct the raid by the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988, which prohibits the use of 35 Arabic words and phrases by non-Muslims, including “Allah”, “Nabi” (prophet), “Injil” (gospel) and “Insya’Allah” (God willing).

After the incident, several Selangor assemblymen suggested that the enactment be amended, insisting that it contradicts Article 11 of the Federal Constitution, which guarantees Malaysians the freedom to practise their respective religions in peace and harmony.

Damansara Utama assemblyman Yeo Bee Yin, her Kampung Tunku counterpart Lau Weng San, and Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran had penned an open letter last Friday calling for the amendment.

Their suggestion drew the wrath of several Muslim activists and earned them a reprimand from PR’s de facto chief, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who chastised the trio for jumping the gun.

Today, in agreeing with the suggested amendment, Viola added that there is also a pressing need for efforts to improve relations between religious groups.

This, she noted, is especially after Muslim groups burned an effigy of Father Lawrence Andrew – the editor of Catholic weekly the Herald – over his insistence that Malay-speaking Catholics continue to use the word “Allah” in their worship as they have done for over a century.

“CLS calls on all Malaysians to respect the rights of all citizens especially the right to freedom of religion and practice one’s faith free of intimidation and interference,” she said, while welcoming the call by the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) for Putrajaya to adhere to its own 10-point solution on the “Allah” row.

The on-going legal tussle between the federal government and the Catholic Church over the use of the word “Allah” has lead to some of the worst religious strife in the country’s history over the past four years.

A church was firebombed while mosques, surau and even a gurdwara were vandalised after a 2009 High Court ruled that the Catholic Church could publish the word “Allah” in the Malay language section its newspaper, Herald.

Last Sunday, some Muslims groups burned an effigy of Herald editor, Rev Father Lawrence Andrew, and declared “war” on the Catholic priest for his insistence that Catholics will continue to use Allah in their worship as has been done for over a century.

The on-going 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.