Selangor religious authorities persecuting Christians with ‘Allah’ ban, says Catholic legal group
Eileen Ng, TMI
The plan by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) to stop Christians from using the word “Allah” appears to be a plan to persecute the minority, said a Christian legal group.
Catholic Lawyers’ Society president Viola De Cruz Silva said there were no provisions in the Federal Constitution banning non-Muslims from propagating their religion among their community or to other non-Muslim communities or groups.
“Therefore, any intended letter from Jais to the churches in Selangor would be invalid,” she said in a statement.
n an interview with news portal The Malay Mail Online last week, newly appointed director of Jais Ahmad Zaharin Mohd Saad had said the religious authorities would draw up a list of Selangor churches before writing to ask them comply with the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation among Muslims) Enactment 1988.
“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 enactment, which was passed by the Barisan Nasional state government, prohibits non-Muslims in Selangor from using 35 Arabic words and phrases, including “Allah”, “Nabi” (prophet), “Injil” (gospel) and “Insya’Allah” (God willing).
Viola said Jais should be aware that it did not have a right to dictate to non-Muslims the practise of their religion.
She said it would amount to an infringement of a person’s freedom to practise his or her religion as enshrined in the Constitution.
“It would appear that there is a concerted effort to persecute the minority religion in this country. If true, this is indeed a sad state of affairs and does not augur well for Malaysia which is trying to portray itself as a moderate, progressive Muslim country and a leader of Muslim moderates,” she said.
The Catholic church has been on a collision course with Putrajaya over the use of the word “Allah”.
Many Islamist groups in Malaysia had insisted that the word “Allah” belonged exclusively to Muslims, although Christians and other faiths have argued otherwise.
