Dr M says OK to Ibrahim Ali's 'burn Bible' call, Pak Lah say 'DON'T' - what says flip-flop Najib

Former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has stressed that there should not be any action to burn the Bible.

Abdullah said this in response to the government’s decision not to pursue the case of Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali for threatening to burn the Bible on grounds that Ibrahim’s call was to defend the sanity of Islam.

"Let them have the Bible. Don't burn it," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Human Capital Summit 2014.

However, the former prime minister, popularly referred to as Pak Lah, admitted that he was not aware about the details issue after he was briefed by the reporters.

"I did not know what exactly the statement was made. I don't know whether you are representing the person who said this.

"If I say something and he is going to say something else, that's not very good," he added.

'Ibrahim's statement not seditious'

After coming under strong attack, the Attorney-General's Chambers finally, on Oct 27, broke its silence on its refusal to prosecute Ibrahim for his threat to burn Malay language copies of the Bible on grounds that his statement was not seditious.

This was because, the AGC said, Ibrahim had made the call in the context of an incident in Jelutong, Penang, where copies of the Bible were said to be distributed to members of the public, including Muslims.

"As decided by the courts, before a statement is deemed to have seditious tendencies, the statement must be seen as a whole and cannot be separated from the context,” the chambers said.

Minister in the Prime Minister Department Nancy Shukri, who is in charge of legal matters, was earlier this month heavily criticised when she said in a parliamentary written reply that Ibrahim would not be prosecuted because he was defending Islam.

Nancy later defended herself, stating that she was merely conveying the official explanation of the Attorney-General's Chambers.

Ibrahim had made the threat early last year, after taking offence that the Bible contained the word 'Allah' to refer to God, which he claimed could confuse Muslims. -M'kini