Malaysian authorities seize Bibles in ?Allah? row

Malaysian authorities seize Bibles in
‘Allah’ row
on january 02, 2014 at 12:18 pm in news
KUALA LUMPUR, (AFP) – Malaysian Islamic
authorities on Thursday seized hundreds of Bibles
from a Christian group and questioned two of its
officers, one of them said, amid tensions over the
use of the word “Allah”.
A court in October barred a Malaysian Catholic
newspaper from using “Allah” to refer to the
Christian God in its Malay-language edition — a
verdict which was welcomed by Muslim
conservatives but which sparked concern among
Christians, a minority in the multi-faith country.
After the verdict, Prime Minister Najib Razak,
walking a tightrope between pleasing his
conservative Muslim ethnic Malay base without
alienating non-Muslim minorities, assured
Christians the practice of their religion would not be
threatened.
But Islamic officials from the central state of
Selangor on Thursday seized 16 boxes containing
more than 300 Bibles from the Bible Society of
Malaysia, said the society’s president Lee Min
Choon.
Lee said he and a colleague were also detained
“under a state law, which prohibits the use of the
word Allah by non-Muslims”. They were later
released but must meet authorities again next
week.
Most of the seized Bibles — imported from
neighbouring Indonesia where Malay is also spoken
— were in Malay. A few were in Iban, a language
spoken by one of the country’s indigenous groups.
“We have been using them (the Bibles) ever since
the society started (in 1985), and even before that,”
Lee told AFP. “This is the first time we have been
raided.”
Officials from the Selangor Islamic Religious
Department did not immediately return a request for
comment.
The Council of Churches of Malaysia said in a
statement it was “alarmed” by the raid and urged
the government to “protect religious rights as
provided under the Federal Constitution”.
The dispute over the use of “Allah” by non-Muslims
erupted in early 2009, when the Home Ministry
threatened to revoke the publishing permit of the
Catholic newspaper the Herald for using the word.
Authorities said using “Allah” in non-Muslim
literature could confuse Muslims and entice them to
convert.
The Catholic Church sued, claiming violation of its
constitutional rights.
The church says the word “Allah” is the most
accurate translation for “God” and has been used
for decades in Malaysia and elsewhere.
A court upheld the church’s argument later that
year and lifted the ban. But a higher court
overturned that ruling in October, reinstating the
ban.
The ban’s removal had triggered a series of attacks
on churches and other places of worship in early
2010, using Molotov cocktails, rocks and paint, and
sparked fears of wider religious conflict.
Muslims make up 60 percent of the country’s 28
million people, while Christians account for about
nine percent.
Malaysia has largely avoided overt religious conflict
in recent decades, but tensions have slowly risen
along with what many see as an increasing
Islamisation of the country.