Don’t play with fire

By admin-s On Jun 26, 2014

(FMT) – You burn the Bible. You burn the country.

The Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) has morphed into a very powerful force that fears no one in the country. Indeed, it has become a law unto itself, a law that it presumably derived from a divine source. It cares nothing for mere mortals like the Attorney-General or the Menteri Besar. Even the Prime Minister appears to cower in the corner lest Mais pronounces some frightening fatwas if he so much as nods his head approvingly in the direction of Christians.

Lately, Mais has been flexing its muscles over a simple issue: that the Malay and Iban language Bibles it seized in January must be returned to the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM), which is the rightful owner of the holy books. The Attorney-General said so, for he could find nothing wrong with the sacred text. The Selangor government also concurred and directed Mais to hand over the Bibles. Both followed the rule of law. Both listened to the voice of sanity and reason.

But Mais thumbs its nose at them all. Its chairman is a bundle of hostility and arrogance. He stubbornly refused to give back the 321 Bibles to BSM. Its storm-troopers – the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) – that confiscated the books from the BSM premises also will not surrender them. Mais and Jais have become the twin terrors sworn to harass, hound, intimidate Christians wherever they are in Selangor. Despite what the Attorney-General has said in lucid terms, Mais wants to continue its crusade against the Bibles that contained the word Allah.