KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — The MCA is targeting the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor administration over the “unconstitutional” religious enactment that the Barisan Nasional (BN) party was “complicit” in passing in 1988, a DAP MP noted today.

In fending off attacks from the MCA over the controversial raid by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) on the Bible Society Malaysia (BSM) last week, Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua pointed out that the enforcement was based on the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988 legislated when BN had governed the state.

“It is the very enactment which was passed by Barisan Nasional, with the full support of MCA, which is giving rise to JAIS assertiveness today in curbing the rights of the non-Islamic religions,” Pua said in a statement today.

He asserted that it was this law that laid the foundations for all that was wrong with the contentious enforcement: the “offence” for non-Muslims to use the word “Allah, the warrantless raid and arrests, and the failure to inform the Selangor administration of the action.

The Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988, passed by the then BN state government, prohibits non-Muslims in Selangor from using 35 Arabic words and phrases in their faith, including “Allah”, “Nabi” (prophet), “Injil” (gospel) and “Insya’Allah” (God willing).

It was used as the basis for the raid on the BSM office last week that led to the seizure of over 300 Malay- and Iban-language bibles as well as the arrest of two society officials.

Today, Pua also skewered the MCA for “preaching” to the Selangor administration despite its role in allowing the unconstitutional law to be enacted and for failing to reprimand its Umno partner who accused Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim of “failing to defend Islam and the Sultan” by ordering the seized bibles returned.

“Twenty-five years ago, MCA failed in their duties to protect the constitutionally enshrined freedom of religion for the non-Muslims. Malaysians today are paying the price of their folly. Hence MCA has no moral right to lay blame on the current state government which is working hard to pick up the pieces.”

Since October, Christian-Muslims ties have been strained following the Court of Appeal ruling then barring “Allah” to Catholic Church, during which it also ventured that the word was not integral to the Christian faith.

But the Jais decision to begin enforcing the 1988 law has added fuel to the fire, leading at one point to planned protests by Umno Selangor and Malay groups against churches in the state that refused to yield to their demands of Muslim exclusivity over “Allah”. 

The current “Allah” row dates back to a 2009 High Court ruling upholding the Catholic Church’s constitutional right to publish the word in the Bahasa Malaysia section of its Herald weekly, but has its roots in laws from the 1980s limiting the non-Muslim use of the Arabic term.

The ongoing legal dispute between the government and the Catholic Church over its right to print the word “Allah” in the Herald’s Bahasa Malaysia section is still pending before the Federal Court, which is set to hear arguments from both sides on February 24 before deciding on whether it will hear an appeal by the Catholic Church.

Muslims are Malaysia’s dominant religious group and account for over 60 per cent of the population, while Christians make up about 10 per cent or 2.6 million.