KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 ― The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) told the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) to abide by the law after the Muslim body insisted it will continue to seize bibles containing the word “Allah” despite the Attorney-General’s refusal to prosecute such cases.

Aside from the threat to keep up the seizures, Mais also said that it would arrest those found distributing Christian material containing the Arabic word for God.

“No one can be a law unto themselves,” Rev Dr Eu Hong Seng, chairman of the umbrella body representing churches nationwide, told The Malay Mail Online.

“This nation is in dire need of a baptism of common sense,” he added.

Despite Putrajaya’s assurance yesterday that the ban on Christians’ use of “Allah” only applied to the Catholic weekly Herald, Mais chairman Datuk Mohamad Adzib Mohd Isa was reported by The Malaysian Insider today as saying that the religious authorities would not stop seizing the bibles using the term.

Mohamad Adzib also insisted the state's religious authorities had the right to destroy the over 300 Malay- and Iban-language bibles confiscated from the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) earlier this year, but said the matter would be left to the state's prosecutors to decide.

The news portal reported the Mais chief as saying that although the council accepted the AG’s decision not to prosecute BSM for its possession of the holy scriptures, it disagreed with the reason given.

When contacted today, BSM general secretary Rev Dr Simon Wong declined to comment.

Last week, AG Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said no charges would be brought against the bible distributor, pointing out that the books were not “controlled items” and that it was not a national security issue.

However, disagreeing with Abdul Gani, Mais insisted that there were grounds to “prosecute” BSM under the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988.

Mais also said it would apply to the court to dispose of the bibles.

Complicating the impasse further, the Federal Court had on Monday decided by a 4-to-3 majority to deny the Catholic Church the right to appeal a lower court decision preventing it from using the word “Allah” in its weekly Herald.

A government official said in response the same day that Malaysian Christians were still free to call their God “Allah” in churches and reiterated the Najib administration’s commitment to its 10-point solution.

The official stressed that the Federal Court’s decision only upheld a government ban on the Catholic Church from publishing the word in the Herald weekly.

The 10-point solution, which was issued by the Cabinet shortly before the Sarawak state election in 2011, allows the distribution of Christian bibles in the Malay, Indonesian and indigenous languages in Malaysia.

However, Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Indonesia bibles brought into the peninsula must have the symbol of the cross and the words “Christian Publication” printed on the front cover.