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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Bishop Paul: Go for old stamp on Al-Kitab

Catholic prelate says the previous designation of ‘Christian Publication’ on Malay bibles is preferable to the government-proposed ‘For Christianity’ label.

PETALING JAYA: Catholic Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing today urged the use of the previous designation ‘Christian Publication’ in place of the government-proposed ‘For Christianity’ on imported copies of the Al-Kitab.

The bibles are currently held up at Kuching and Klang ports by reason of bureaucratic trammels.

The Home Ministry’s requirement that copies of Al-Kitab be stamped with serial numbers and with the ‘For Christians Only’ label has run into opposition from Church leaders and Christian groups.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) are meeting next week to discuss a new compromise proposed this week by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Idris Jala that impounded copies of Al-Kitab be stamped ‘For Christianity’ rather than with the inherently restrictive “For Christians Only’.

Speaking to local media today in his capacity as Catholic Bishop for the Malacca-Johor diocese, Tan, who is also president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, said:

“This may smack of frivolous jousting over semantics but the previous designation of ‘Christian Publication’ on copies of Al-Kitab agreed to between the government and the CFM in the 1980s is a more neutral and innocuous label than the government proposed ‘For Christianity’ label.”

The vocal prelate had earlier denounced as “flatly unacceptable” the home ministry’s requirements that impounded copies of Al-Kitab be stamped with serial numbers and ‘For Christians Only’ label before they can be released.

Tan was the president of the CFM in the 1980s when an understanding between CFM and the government was reached on stamping imported copies of the Al-Kitab with the label ‘Christian Publication’.

“The label ‘For Christianity’ is unwarrantedly restrictive whereas ‘Christian Publication’ is not. I would plump for the latter any day,” opined the bishop.

“The bible is the good news of salvation meant for all who are moved to hear it,” he reiterated.

“In Malaysia, we adhere to the restriction on its dissemination to Muslims because that is the law of the land. We abide by that restriction because of the constitutionally mandated status of Islam as the country’s official religion,” he explained.

Since 1986 the Al-Kitab has become a hot potato because of a government ban that year on the use of theological terms such as ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims.

The term for God is freely employed in the Indonesian version of the bible, Al-Kitab, which is the scriptural text used by Christians in Sabah and Sarawak for over eight decades.

Borneoan Christians were exempted from the government proscription against non-Muslim use of the term ‘Allah’.

The exemption rendered the issue dormant for the better part of two decades before it flared anew early last year after the High Court ruled in favour of Christian use of the term ‘Allah’.

The home ministry gained a stay of the court judgment but that only brought a tenuous relief from the simmering controversy.

With elections scheduled in Sarawak and a general election looming, the government is anxious to avoid stirring the ire of Christians over the issue. - FMT

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