KUALA LUMPUR - The federal government owes Malay-speaking Christians in East Malaysia an explanation after the High Court ruled “Allah” is not integral to their worship, a senior Sabah evangelical church said today.
A frustrated Datuk Jerry Dusing, president of the Sabah Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB), said the federal government had repeatedly promised not to interfere in the religious practices of the two Borneo states and had even drafted a 10-point deal in 2011 to strengthen its guarantees to the Christian community.
“Today, it has become a major issue, which they will have to explain to their constituents,” he told reporters after receiving the written judgement from the High Court Registrar’s office.
Earlier today, the High Court struck out Sabah SIB’s 2007 lawsuit against the Home Ministry for confiscating three boxes of Christian publications that contained the word “Allah”, citing as precedent last year’s Court of Appeal decision against the Catholic Church’s bid to publish the word in its weekly newspaper, Herald,
The High Court said it was bound by the decision of the superior court, which ruled in October last year that the use of “Allah” — the Arabic word for God — is not an integral part of the practice and faith of Christianity.
Dusing, who jointly filed the suit with his church, insisted that the High Court was mistaken in adopting the appellate court’s ruling as their case was completely different from the Herald case.
“In our opinion, SIB’s case concerning ‘Allah’ is much broader than just a publication for just information to its own members.
“In our opinion, the use of the word ‘Allah’ is very integral to the faith and practices of the Bahasa Malaysia communities in Sabah and Sarawak,” the preacher said.
Dusing stressed that by validating the Home Minister’s action in seizing the publications, the High Court has brought into question the legality of the use of the word “Allah” in the entire practice of their faith.
He maintained that the Bumiputera Christian communities in Sabah and Sarawak — who form the bulk of Malaysia’s Christian population — have used the Malay language, along with the word “Allah to refer to God”, in the practice of their faith for generations.
“These books were for children, but this also touches on our songs, our liturgy, even our sermons,” he said, adding that with the High Court choosing to the Court of Appeal ruling. “That means we have to re-educate our whole BM community”.
“If English was the mode of education right from the beginning, then it would not be a problem, but Malaysia chose that the national language was BM, without any restrictions (in its usage) at the start,” he said.
Dusing added that freedom to practise their faith was reaffirmed in the 20- and 18-point agreements signed between Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak prior to the formation of Malaysia on September 16, 1963.
The senior church leader claimed that one of the things taken into account when the agreements were negotiated was the position of Christianity in both Sabah and Sarawak.
“It was among the Bahasa community that the faith was very much alive, and we were at that time using the Malay language at that time.
“History also points to the fact that we had already been using (Bahasa Malaysia) very much earlier, even before Islam came into the country we were using our own translations of the bible... and ‘Allah’ was used, as part and parcel of our faith,” he said.
The Sabah Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) church filed its lawsuit on December 10, 2007, seeking to quash the Home Ministry’s decision to seize three boxes of Malay-language Christian educational books that contained the word “Allah”.
The books, imported from Indonesia, were seized at the international budget airport terminal in Sepang on August 15, 2007 while in transit. They were later returned to the Sabah church on January 25, 2008.
Sabah SIB’s case is one of a string of legal challenges initiated by the Malaysian Christian community against the federal government over alleged infringement of their constitutional right to freely practise their religions.
On March 5, a seven-man panel in the Federal Court heard the Catholic Church’s application for leave to appeal a lower court ruling preventing the Herald from publishing the word “Allah”, but has postponed its decision indefinitely.
One other outstanding lawsuit is by Sarawakian Christian, Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, against the Home Ministry for seizing personal compact discs (CD) containing the word “Allah” back in May 2008.
Jill, a Melanau, filed her suit on August 20, 2008 seeking to quash the Home Ministry’s seizure of her CDs and a declaration that she has the right to own, use and import materials containing the word “Allah”.
The court is scheduled to review the ministry’s decision on May 15, nearly five years after she won leave for a judicial review in 2009.
-Malaymail
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