Mais says has sultan’s consent, insists exco has no right to return Bibles
(The Malaysian Insider) – The Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) said its stand not to return the Bibles seized from the Bible Society of Malaysia last January has the consent of the Selangor Sultan, the New Straits Times reported today.
In its submission to the sultan, Mais argued that returning the Bibles would result “in the redistribution of the books banned under the law”, adding that it would violate the state’s existing law.
As such, Mais said Selangor’s executive councillors had no power to instruct the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) to return the Bibles.
Yesterday, several PAS lawmakers hit out at Mais for refusing to return Bibles, despite the Attorney-General having cleared BSM of accusations of using the books to proselytise to Muslims.
The New Straits Times quoted Mais as saying that Selangor exco members had no authority to order the return of the Alkitab and Bup Kudus, the Malay and Iban translations of the Bible.
Despite Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail declaring there was no case to charge BSM, Mais has steadfastly refused to abide by the decision.
