While the public is aware of the Allah issue associated with the Roman Catholic’s newspaper, The Herald, many may have forgotten about another case that could be coming to trial soon, unless the authorities reached an out-of-court settlement with the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) church, a move recommended by Kuala Lumpur High Court (Special Powers and Appellate division) judge Datuk Aziah Ali. Bobby Chew, lawyer for SIB said: “If no solution is reached, a hearing date would be fixed on April 30.”
In The Herald’s case, High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan ruled last New Year’s eve that the word “Allah” is not exclusive to Islam, and The Herald can continue to use that term in its publication.
SIB, established in 1928, is East Malaysia’s most prominent church, with 120,000 members in Sabah and 100,000 in Sarawak. In 1993, in response to the migration of many Sabahan and Sarawakian Christians to Peninsular Malaysia, SIB spread its wings to Peninsular Malaysia where it now has 30,000 members in 31 congregations, 29 of which worship in Bahasa Malaysia. In all of Malaysia, SIB has over 600 churches today.
The SIB case predates The Herald’s case, but the former has not yet gone to trial. On July 15, 2007 Royal Customs and Excise Department officers at the KLIA low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) confiscated eight religious books brought in by the church from Indonesia for its Sunday school children classes. The books were on transit to Kota Kinabalu in East Malaysia. The Home Ministry, which controls the department, claimed that the books contained the word “Allah” which is barred from use by non-Muslims, and seized them to prevent confusing Muslims.
SIB appealed to the Home Ministry to lift the ban on Christians books imported from Indonesia which has the word “Allah” in them, but without success. In December 2007, SIB made its application to the court for judicial review. It sought a 10-point declaration, which includes, inter-alia, a declaration that the government recognizes SIB’s constitutional right to use the term “Allah” in both the Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia Bibles and in all SIB’s religious publications for distribution to its congregants.
Pastor Jerry Dusing, head of Sabah SIB said: “We have no problem. All we want is for them to declare we can use the word in all our religious materials published in Bahasa.” Earlier, referring to the suggestion of Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister Department, that East Malaysian churches be allowed to use “Allah”, Pastor Jerry Dusing said: “We have East Malaysians in the Peninsula as well. This is contradictory to the 1 Malaysia ideals. How can there be two systems in one country?”
On December 27, 2007 the case was adjourned for “outside parties” to try to resolve it but the effort was in vain. Pastor Jerry Dusing said that he proferred the suggestion to have SIB stamp the words “For Christian Use Only” or “Christian Publication” on the cover of its religious books so that Muslims who inadvertently got hold of such publications would not be confused.
This suggestion is similar to what The Herald did. The Herald newspaper is prominently stamped with “Not for Muslims” on its front cover, but this did not prevent Muslims from accusing the newspaper of trying to convert Muslims by using the word “Allah” in its articles.
But why did SIB resort to importing books from Indonesia. Pastor Jerry Dusing said this was because there were none available locally. He said no local printers wanted to print religious books for the church.
The government has asked for the case to be thrown out without a hearing. But given the judgment in The Herald’s case, this is unlikely to succeed. So far the Home Ministry has not replied to SIB’s suggestion to stamp warnings that its religious publications are for Christians use.
So unless there is a out-of-court settlement soon, it looks like the SIB Allah issue will be heading to the court for settlement. And that may well bring further disquiet to the Malaysians, both Muslims and non-Muslims.
Previous posts
Allah ruling – 1 Malaysia 2 Bibles? Jury Still Out
Allah OK For East Malaysian Christians Only
Allah Ruling – East Malaysians Stand Firm
Minister To Church Leaders – Drop Allah Usage
Malaysia – Judge Rules Allah Name Not Exclusive To Islam
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