KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 — The Cabinet will not intervene over the controversial seizure of Malay and Iban language bibles in Selangor beyond reiterating its commitment to a 10-point solution in the on-going “Allah” row.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the Cabinet agreed that there is nothing the federal government was authorised to do in the case, as the law is clear that religious issues came under the individual states and not the federation.

“The Cabinet decided that the issue of the bible seizures is a state matter,” he said when met after speaking at a conference here today.

On January 2, Selangor’s religious authority’s seized Malay and Iban language bibles with the word “Allah”, which the courts deemed was not an integral part of the Christian faith and that it would cause confusion among Muslims.

The 10-point solution, issued by the Najib administration shortly before the Sarawak state election in 2011, allowed for bibles in Malay and indigenous languages to be printed, imported and distributed nationwide with certain conditions imposed for Peninsula Malaysia.

Khairy stressed that the raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) by the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) was done based on a state enactment, which cannot be over-ruled by the 2011 guidelines.

“That’s why we have to understand, in the case of BSM it was a raid undertaken by the state religious enforcement authority.

“The 10-point solution cannot supersede state laws. That is something that the state has to handle... as far as the federal government is concerned, we are committed to upholding the 10-point solution,” he said.

On Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) proposal to have an urgent bipartisan dialogue over growing racial and religious tension in the country, Khairy said the opposition coalition must take the first step to settle the issue surrounding Jais’s bible raid.

He pointed out that Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim “admitted” that the 10-point solution was the best answer to the current impasse when the latter ordered Jais to check if the raid was in accordance to the federal guideline.

“Well, if the discourse is based on the 10-point solution. If Khalid admitted that this is the best course to solve the issue, then there is something to talk about.

“The reason why the Allah issue was reignited was because of the actions of the state enforcement authority. There is nothing we can do,” he said.

On January 3, Jais officials accompanied by policemen raided the BSM office in Petaling Jaya, confiscating over 300 copies of the bible in the Malay and Iban languages.

The affair sparked an uproar, leading to Khalid issuing an order to Jais on January 8 to return the bibles to BSM, if the holy scriptures comply with the Cabinet’s 10-point solution.

Jais had then ignored the directive. Instead, it pressed ahead with questioning BSM president Lee Min Choon along with the society’s office manager, Sinclair Wong, over the bibles.

The shocking raid earlier this month had escalated religious tension over “Allah” that was already heightened following last October’s Court of Appeal ruling barring the Arabic word to non-Muslims.

It also complicated Putrajaya’s 10-point solution that was introduced to allow Christians the continued use of “Allah” in their indigenous language bibles even as the legal case dragged on.

The 10-point solution, issued by the Najib administration shortly before the Sarawak state election in 2011, allowed for bibles in Malay and indigenous languages to be printed, imported and distributed nationwide with certain conditions imposed for Peninsula Malaysia.

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.

Christians make up close to 10 per cent of the Malaysian population, or 2.6 million. Almost two-thirds of them are Bumiputera and are largely based in Sabah and Sarawak, where they routinely use Bahasa Malaysia and indigenous languages in their religious practices, including describing God as “Allah” in their prayers and holy book.