PETALING JAYA: The government is exceeding its authority in insisting that copies of the Malay bible carry serial numbers, according to constitutional expert Abdul Aziz Bari.
He interpreted the action as meaning that the government was trying to control the number of copies in circulation. This would go against the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, he said.
Aziz, who teaches law at a local university, noted that the Federal Constitution restricts the government’s authority in matters of religion, including Islam.
“For example, only the Islamic religious authority can tell you how to pray,” he said.
Asked whether the law prohibiting non-Muslim publications from using “Allah” as God’s name had any bearing on the issue, he said an enactment could not supersede the constitution.
“Under Federal Constitution Clause 11, subjected to Clause 4, you have religious freedom,” he said.
“Clause 4 says that you cannot propagate your religion among Muslims. Confusion did not arise in the case of bibles being stamped with the words ‘Christian publication’”, he added.
Referring to the bibles impounded at Port Klang and Kuching ports, he said: “There is no proof that these bibles are being distributed among Muslims to teach them Christianity.”
He said the government was interfering with the practice of religion with the conditions it had imposed for the release of the impounded bibles.
The government provoked anger from Christians when it was found that the 5,100 impounded bibles had been stamped with serial numbers and the words “For the use of Christians only” without consent from the importers.
The Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) claims that under an agreement made with the Home Ministry in 2005, it is required only to emboss each copy with a cross and the words “Christian Publication”.
However, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein defended the serial numbering move yesterday by saying that it was standard practice. - FMT
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