SHAH ALAM, July 2 ― Selangor today adopted the Attorney-General’s position that bibles containing “Allah” did not breach the law, after state Islamic authorities expressed the intention to keep on seizing Christian material containing the Arabic word for god.

Following the Selangor Islamic Religious Council’s (Mais) warning that it would continue to enforce state enactments that it asserts prohibits such material, Khalid further noted that Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said the bibles were not a national security issue.

“It could be that Mais' statement is based on the enactment which accords them the power to monitor, however, the state government accepts the Attorney-General's view on the matter,” he told reporters here.

Mais reportedly said last week it will continue seizing bibles containing the word “Allah” and arrest those who distribute them, despite Putrajaya's latest assurance that the restriction on the non-Muslim use of the word only applies to Catholic weekly Herald.

In January, its enforcement arm, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) raided the Bible Society of Malaysia’s then-headquarters in Petaling Jaya and seized over 300 copies of Malay- and Iban-language bibles.

Khalid said he could not comment on the status of the seized bibles and if they would be returned.

“I cannot comment on the matter, because this has been agreed by the Attorney-General for implementation,” he added.

Mais chairman Datuk Mohamad Adzib Mohd Isa was quoted as saying last week that the state's religious authorities have the right to destroy the 300 holy books confiscated from the Bible Society of Malaysia earlier this year.

He added, however, that state prosecutors will decide on the matter.

Mais has insisted that there are grounds to “prosecute” the bible socirty under the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988.

Mais also said that it will apply to the court to dispose the bibles.

Separately, the Federal Court last week deniedd the Catholic Church the right to appeal a lower court decision preventing it from using the word “Allah” in its weekly Herald.

But a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office later said that Malaysian Christians are still free to call their God “Allah” in churches, reiterating the Najib administration’s commitment to its 10-point solution from 2011.

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

Last year, the Court of Appeal ruled that “Allah” was not integral to the Christian faith and that the home minister was justified in banning the Herald from using the Arabic word on grounds of national security and public order.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration issued the 10-point solution shortly before the Sarawak state election in 2011 to end a ministry’s blockade of shipments of Christian holy scriptures in the Malay language containing the word “Allah.”

Christians make up about 10 per cent of the Malaysian population of 30 million.

Almost two-thirds of the Christians are Bumiputera and live in Sabah and Sarawak, where they routinely use Bahasa Malaysia and indigenous languages in their religious practices, which include describing God as “Allah” in their prayers and holy book.