The Home Ministry has allegedly barred the distribution of Catholic weekly the Herald in Sabah, despite earlier assurances by the government that there was no ban on the use of the word “Allah” in the East Malaysian state.
According to Herald editor Fr Lawrence Andrew, around 2,000 copies of the weekly publication were seized at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) on Thursday, apparently on order of the Home Ministry.
“The consignment arrived at 2.54pm on Thursday, and it was checked by KDN officials as the usual practice,” he told The Malay Mail Online, referring to the Home Ministry’s Malay acronym.
“The forwarding company were however told not to release the consignment. The company checked again on Friday at 10am, and were told that the consignment has been withheld. No reason was given,” Lawrence added.
The priest said that as of now, there is still no news as to the status of the consignment, which was supposed to have been distributed to churches in the Kota Kinabalu and Keningau dioceses.
When contacted, however, deputy home minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said he had no knowledge of the seizure.
The ban on distribution is the latest incident to hit the controversial tussle between the Catholic Church and the government over the use of the word “Allah”.
Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Ministry’s decision to ban the use of the word in the Herald was justified, as the use of the word “Allah” was not integral to the practice of the Christian faith.
The ruling — which overturned an earlier High Court decision that the ban was unconstitutional — has since sparked confusion over the use of the word by Christians in their worship, especially with conflicting opinions within the government itself on how far the ruling would affect practising Christians.
Churches in Sabah and Sarawak, however, have said they will continue their age-old practice of referring to God as “Allah” in their worship and in their holy scriptures.
Several ministers also said recently that the 10-point solution issued by Putrajaya in 2011 — which allows the printing, importation and distribution of the Al-Kitab, the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Christian bible, containing the word “Allah” — should stand, despite the appellate court ruling.
According to a 2010 census, Muslims are Malaysia’s largest religious group, followed by Buddhists. Christians are the third-largest at 2.6 million, which comes up to about 10 per cent of the Malaysian population.
Bumiputera Christians, who form about 64 per cent or close to two-thirds of the Christian community in Malaysia, have used the word “Allah” when praying and speaking in the national language and their native tongues for centuries.
Malay Mail
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