SHAH ALAM, Jan 10 — The Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) has not returned the over 300 Malay and Iban language bibles it seized from the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) but instead, called in two of its officials for questioning today.

BSM president Lee Min Choon and office manager Sinclair Wong, both who were arrested the day after new years in a joint raid at its office, gave their statements to the religious authority at its office here this morning.

“They asked us some questions to try to understand about the bible society and how we operate.

“They were curious to know why the Malay bibles existed, so we explained to them,” he told reporters here.

Lee added that the Jais officials did not inform them whether the bibles would be returned to the organisation.

“Nothing was said about [the bibles] today.

“I think the people we’ve met were not decision makers. They were tasked with recording a statement from us,” he said.

Two days ago, Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim ordered Jais to return the bibles provided the scriptures containing the word “Allah” complied with the federal government’s 10-point solution.

Today, Lee reiterated that BSM’s Malay bibles, the Al-Kitab, are imprinted with an image of the cross and the words “Christian publication”, as required by the 10-point solution for bibles distributed in the peninsula.

The 10-point solution, which was issued by the Najib administration shortly before the Sarawak state election in 2011, also allows bibles in the Malay and indigenous languages to be distributed freely without such conditions in Sabah and Sarawak.

“The greater responsibility is on the state to find a solution to this problem and ... I believe that if the state embraces the 10 points, it would be a good enough solution for the moment.

“We’ve been under pressure to take legal action but I want to say that if the Selangor state government is prepared to embrace the 10 points formally, we’ll be happy to forget about legal action,” Lee said.

He added that he did not believe that the solution would be amending laws or even bringing the issue to court.

“It has to be political, social and with a lot of good will.

“I think we have to face the reality of the situation, I think the 10-point is a very realistic solution to the problem,” he said.

He also called upon the Christian community to remain calm as there is “nothing to be alarmed about”.

“The various authorities have to sort themselves out and I’d like to also appeal to all Malaysians and say that the shared religious vocabulary that we have is something to be celebrated and should serve as a foundation for building unity, peace and harmony and is not something that should divide us,” Lee said.

Christians make up about 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.