SIB Sabah president Reverend Datuk Jerry Dusing (left) and National Evangelical Christian secretary Alfred Tais outside the the Kuala Lumpur High Court in March. SIB today obtained leave in a judicial review application to seek a declaration that the word ‘Allah’ could be used in any Christian publication. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, October 1, 2014.
Evangelical denomination Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) today obtained leave in a judicial review application to seek a declaration that the word "Allah" could be used in any Christian publication.
This follows the Court of Appeal decision to allow an appeal by SIB to reverse a May 5 High Court ruling, which refused to grant SIB leave.
High Court judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof had then said that she was bound by a September 14 Court of Appeal ruling in the case of Catholic weekly, Herald, that the word “Allah” cannot be used in the Christian publication on grounds it was not an integral part of Christianity.
Today, a three-man Court of Appeal bench, chaired by Datuk Rohana Yusof, said the Federal Court had held that the September 14 finding that "Allah was not an integral part of Christianity", was a mere passing remark.
"We are allowing the appeal as the application is not frivolous and vexatious. The appellant (SIB) had crossed a threshold mark for the merit of their judicial review application to be heard," she said in setting aside the High Court order.
Lawyer Lim Heng Seng, who appeared for SIB, said the case would be remitted before Zaleha and a case management would be held in two weeks.
"We will be filing affidavits, including opinions from experts, that ‘Allah’ can be used by Christians.”
Earlier, he told the bench that his client no longer challenged the seizure of its religious books in 2007 as the items were returned the following year, referring to the seizure of children's religious books containing the word “Allah”.
He told the judges said that SIB was seeking 12 declarations, chief among them was that the word “Allah” could be used in any Christian publication nationwide.
Lim said the “Allah” issue was not dead despite the Federal Court not granting leave to the Catholic Church to appeal the ban on the use of the word in the Herald.
"This issue is still alive and needs to be argued further in the High Court," he said.
Lim said the seizure of the books came about following a 1986 ministerial order that non-Muslim publications were banned from using the words "Allah", "Kaabah", "Solat" and "Baitullah".
"It was not passed by Parliament but only an administrative order by the home minister."
Lim said the court had to make a decision or else seizure of religious books and publications that contained prohibited words would recur in the future.
Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan said the appeal was academic since the books had been returned.
"The appellant can no longer ask for declarations when the crux of the subject matter no longer existed," he said.
On June 23, four of the seven-member Federal Court bench dismissed the church's leave application to appeal, citing that the Court of Appeal (September 14, 2013) was right in its decision to ban the word “Allah” in the Herald.
Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria, president of Court of Appeal Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif, Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin and Federal Court judge Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar were in the majority.
Three other judges – Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, and Federal Court judges Datuk Zainun Ali and Tan Sri Jeffrey Tan Kok Hwa – held that leave must be granted to the church.
Arifin, who delivered the majority judgment, said leave should be refused as the Court of Appeal had applied the correct test to determine that the home minister used his discretion to impose the ban.
However, the chief justice said the comment by the Court of Appeal that "Allah" was not an integral part of the Christian faith in support of the minister's decision to impose a ban was a mere passing remark.
SIB (Sabah) president Rev Datuk Jerry Dusing told reporters today he was relieved that leave was given for the court to hear their side of the story in the “Allah” row.
"We have taken some steps forward although the battle started in 2007, but it is a long way to go," he said.
He said Bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak wanted their religious freedom and practices to be maintained as was the case before Malaysia was formed in 1963.
"We are looking to the court for a fuller resolution on this matter," he added.
Dusing said the ideal situation was to return to the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement and guarantee the religious rights of the people of Sabah and Sarawak.
"There are a lot of debates there because the 20-point agreement (Sabah) and 18-point agreement (Sarawak) had been violated and one of them is freedom of religion when these states formed a larger federation."
He said in SIB's case, the books were returned but there was no guarantee that such incidents would not repeat because of a questionable ministerial order.
"We want a clear stand and that from the judiciary," he said, adding that SIB also wanted to see the nation progress peacefully.
- TMI
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