A-G’s Chambers comes to Ibrahim’s defence over Malay Bible remark

(The Star) –  The Attorney-General’s Chambers has come out to defend its decision not to charge Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali for sedition over his “burn Malay language Bibles” remarks.

Ibrahim’s speech where he called for the burning of Malay language Bibles “does not fall within the definition of a statement with a seditious tendency under the Sedition Act 1948,” said the Attorney-General’s Chambers in a statement.

As such, it said, no legal action was taken against Ibrahim “because he had no intention to create religious disharmony when he called for the burning of Bibles with the word ‘Allah’.”

“It is clear that his intentions were to defend the sanctity of Islam. This can be seen in his speech,” said the statement issued on Monday.

The statement carried an excerpt of Ibrahim’s speech, in which he said: “This is not a sentiment or intention to cause religious disharmony, but this is defending the sanctity of Islam that is clearly defined in laws.”

The A-G’s Chambers added that Ibrahim could not be charged under Section 504 of the Penal Code because he “did not have an intent to make an insult that would provoke a breach of the peace”.

“There was also no offence under Section 298 or 298A of the Penal Code as he was clearly defending the sanctity of Islam. The act of distributing free Bibles openly outside SMK Jelutong could threaten the faith of Muslim students who lack an understanding of their religion if they read the Bibles, especially if they contained Jawi script,” said the statement.

It added that decisions to take no further action on the police reports lodged against Ibrahim were made on Dec 3 and Dec 17 last year.

Ibrahim made the speech in January last year with regard to individuals who had purportedly distributed Bibles containing the word “Allah” to students, including Malays, at SMK Jelutong in Penang.

He allegedly called for the Malay version of the Bible containing the word “Allah” and Jawi script to be burnt.