Three Selangor lawmakers propose amending state law on using religious words

Three Selangor assemblyman have called for a state law passed during the Barisan Nasional rule to be amended to ensure non-Muslim rights are protected as guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.

State assemblymen Yeo Bee Yin, Rajiv Rishyakaran and Lau Weng San, representing the state constituencies of Damansara Utama, Bukit Gasing and Kampung Tunku respectively, said they would propose the changes to be made on the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988, at the next state assembly sitting.

"It should not be used to restrict anyone from practising and professing their own religion in their preferred language," the trio said in statement, adding that the amendments would also ensure that Muslims continue to be protected from proselytisation.

They said that the enactment only applied to the controlling and restricting propagation of non-Islamic religious doctrines among Muslims.

The move comes as the Selangor Islamic Deparment (Jais) raided the premises of the Bible Society of Malaysia yesterday, and took away some 300 copies of the Bahasa Malaysia and Iban versions of the Bible.

Calling Jais's action reckless, the three DAP assemblymen said the incident should serve as a wake-up call to review sub-section 9 of the 1988 enactment.

The section states that a person commits an offence if he (a) in any published writing; or (b) in any public speech or statement; or (c) in any speech or statement address to any gatherings or persons; or (d) in any speech or statement which is published or broadcast and which at the time of its making he knew or ought reasonably to have known would be published or broadcast, uses the word “Allah” or 34 other Arabic words including "Hadith", "Syariah", "Khalifah", "Fatwa", "Alhamdulillah", "Insyaallah", etc., to express and or describe any fact, belief, idea, concept, act, activity, matter or thing of or pertaining to any non-Islamic religion.

Yeo, Rajiv and Lau said the section clearly contradicted Article 11 of the Federal Constitution which provided for every citizen the right to profess, practise and manage his or her own religion.

"As such this section should be amended to ensure that extreme groups will not act against persons of other faiths at their own convenience.

"The enactment must be consistent with the Federal Constitution which states under Article 11(4) that 'State law and in respect of the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan, federal law may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam', but does not allow for curtailing the rights of non-Muslims in the manner which they practice their own faith," they added.

They called on all Selangor assemblymen to vote in support of the amendment in the spirit of the Federal Constitution, saying it would ensure all Malaysians get equal protection.

"We must not let the extremists to dictate the state and national agenda to the extent that the minorities are victimised unjustly," they added.

In yesterday's raid, the Jais officers, who were accompanied by two policemen, also arrested BSM chairman Lee Min Choon and manager, Sinclair Wong, who were later released on police bail.

The raid followed a statement by Rev Father Lawrence Andrew, the editor of Catholic weekly Herald, who said Catholic churches in Selangor would continue to use the word “Allah” in their weekend services in Bahasa Malaysia, which is primarily attended by East Malaysians.

His comments came after Jais's new director, Ahmad Zaharin Mohd Saad, who said the state religious authorities would draw up a list of Selangor churches before writing to ask them to comply with the enactment.

“We will write to all the churches in Selangor to respect the law that is in force in relation to this,” he was quoted as saying.

The tussle over the word “Allah” arose in 2008 when the Herald was barred by the Home Ministry from using the word.

The Catholic church contested this in court and won a High Court decision in 2009 upholding its constitutional right to do so.

Putrajaya later appealed to successfully overturn the High Court decision, ruling that "Allah" was not integral to the Christian faith. – January 3, 2014.