KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — The Home Ministry has decided to release hundreds of Christian books and compact discs (CDs) back to its owner in Sabah with the latter to bear the cost, its officer confirmed today.

Officer Hashimah Nik Jaafar told Malay Mail Online that the Home Ministry has managed to contact the owner Maklin Masiau, who clarified today that the boxes of Christian materials — containing the word “Allah” — are meant for the use of his church in Sabah.

“So according to him, it’s meant to be for Sabah. We are now arranging with the person concerned to send the materials back to the person,” the Home Ministry’s Publications Control and Quranic Text Division head told Malay Mail Online.

The cost to send the boxes of Christian materials to Sabah would have to be borne by Maklin, the ministry official said, explaining that this was the usual procedures upon the release of seized items.

Hashimah reiterated that the Home Ministry places no restriction on Christian materials that are bound for Sabah and Sarawak — which has a large population of Bumiputera Christians using the Arabic word for God “Allah” for generations in their religious practice.

“As far as we are concerned, any religious materials, Christian books for Sabah and Sarawak, even if it uses the word ‘Allah’, we don’t stop them from using it, but it’s meant only for use in Sabah and Sarawak.”

“We don’t go against the understanding, against what the government has given to Sabah and Sarawak,” she said, referring to the 10-point agreement issued by the Najib Cabinet in 2011.

According to the 10-point solution, the authorities cannot place “prohibitions and restrictions for people who bring along their bibles and Christian materials” when travelling between Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia.

The 10-point solution also allowed for bibles in Malay and indigenous languages to be printed, imported and distributed freely in Sabah and Sarawak but in the peninsula, the holy books must be stamped to indicate that they are a “Christian publication”.

In a statement this evening, the Home Ministry said the Royal Malaysian Customs Department had seized 574 books comprising of 133 titles, 419 CDs and five DVDs at the second Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA2) on October 25, which Maklin had brought in from Medan, Indonesia.

According to the Home Ministry, the Customs officials then passed the seized items to it on October 27, with a “surat penahanan” (detention letter) issued on the same day for the purposes of checking and investigation.

The ministry confirmed that the materials contain the word “Allah”, adding that the presence of the publications with the word “Allah” had raised the suspicions of Customs as baggage that are in transit would not be uploaded at the main terminal, but would be sent straight to the plane on the connecting flight.

The ministry said it had needed to verify if the final destination of the “Allah” Christian materials would be Sabah, as its owner claimed.

Hashimah told Malay Mail Online over the phone that Maklin had initially said his materials were for his personal use, which raised a flag for the Customs officials due to the large amount of materials that were being brought in, coupled with the fact that it did not have an import permit.

Customs officers were simply carrying out their duty and routine when sending it to the ministry for further checks, she said.

Hashimah said the standard procedure would see either application for import permits, or church groups or associations writing in to the ministry to inform the latter in advance of the religious materials being brought in.

But in this case, there was no letter to notify the ministry of the import of the Christian materials, she said.

She also explained the usual procedure would be for the owner of seized materials to reply to the Home Ministry’s “surat penahanan”, which provides for a 60-day period for owners to appeal for the items to be released.

She said Maklin had not written to reply to the letter, also confirming that no churches had contacted her or her officers in her division, saying however that the ministry had taken its own initiative to contact the owner.

This matter is already being resolved, with the boxes of materials stored at the KLIA2 airport to be released pending instructions from Maklin - who is already in Sabah, she said.

Arrangements can be made for the materials to either be collected or be sent back, she said.