KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — The Najib Cabinet should order the immediate return of the 31 Christian hymn books recently seized by Johor police, DAP MP Teresa Kok said today, insisting the move was in violation of its 10-point deal on the “Allah” controversy.
The Seputeh MP said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala should lead the charge as he had been the key negotiator of the 10-point deal, which was formulated in 2011 to resolve the row between Muslims and Christians over the right to use the word “Allah”.
“Idris and the Cabinet must denounce the police’s action and order the immediate return of the books to Father Cyril,” she said, referring to Father Cyril Mannayagam who was also called in for questioning by the cops over the books.
“The Cabinet must also ensure that its 10 point solution is complied with by all federal and state agencies,” Kok added in a statement.
According to media reports over the weekend, Johor police, acting on a tip-off, confiscated 31 copies of Catholic hymn book titled “Mari Kita Memuji Allah Kita” (Praise be to God) from a bookshop in Tangkak, Ledang, on December 5.
Kok, however, said the seizure was in violation of the 10-point deal as the books were meant to be used for praise and worship by orang asli Christians, and not to propagate any non-Islamic faith to Muslims.
She reminded Jala that he had even penned his thoughts on the 10-point deal and explained how it could co-exist with existing Islamic state enactments in an article in The Star on February 24.
Quoting from Jala’s article, Kok observed that the minister had said that in accordance with Article 11.4 of the Federal Constitution, these Islamic state laws were enacted specifically to control and prohibit the “propagation” of non-Islamic faiths to Muslims.
“The act of ‘propagation’ is the crux of the matter,” Jala had written, according to Kok.
The minister stressed that “propagation” is also a key factor in the 10-point deal.
He said the deal does not condone propagation to Muslims, and that the Al-Kitab Bibles, which contain the word “Allah”, can still be used but on conditional basis.
One “pragmatic solution” for the case of the Al-Kitab books, Jala said, is that those used in the peninsula, where Muslims make up a large majority, must bear the cross sign on its front page along with the words “Christian Publication”.
The holy books need not follow such conditions in east Malaysia, however.
Jala also explained other situations where certain prohibited words can be used by non-Muslims, such as when the word “Allah” is sung for the Selangor state anthem or the word “Haji”, which a non-Muslim may use when addressing a Muslim with the Haji title.
Citing the minister’s explanation, Kok insisted that the Johor police had violated the 10-point deal as the Christian hymn books were not meant to be used for “propagation” to Muslims.
“Although Idris has placed upfront a caveat that the views expressed in his column were his own in his personal capacity, the fact remains that he was the key person responsible for proposing the 10 point solution,” she said, before urging the minister to step forward.
