KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — An Islamic religious council is seeking to be a party to a Bumiputera Christian’s constitutional challenge against the Home Ministry’s seizure of her eight compact discs (CDs) containing the word “Allah”, her lawyer confirmed today.

Robin Lim, one of the lawyers representing Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, said the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) had applied to be an intervener.

“We will be contesting the intervener application as in the Court of Appeal. So we don’t want them to come in as a party,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted after Jill Ireland’s case was managed at the High Court here.

The MAIWP had previously failed in its first bid to be an intervener and was only allowed to hold a watching brief at the Court of Appeal, which had on June 23 upheld a previous ruling by the High Court and issued a one-month deadline for the Home Ministry to return the eight CDs to Jill Ireland.

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When asked about the eight CDs belonging to the Sarawakian Christian that was due for return on July 23, Lim said today that the government has yet to release the confiscated materials.

“The status remains on these two matters. We have not seen the CDs and there is no appeal. So far we have not decided on the next course of action,” Lim said, confirming the government had not filed for appeal against the Court of Appeal ruling in favour of his client.

The “Allah” controversy remains a flashpoint in multi-religious Malaysia as some Muslims insist the word is exclusive to Islam despite a controversial government policy allowing its use by Christians in Sarawak and Sabah, where a sizeable section of the community live.

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Jill Ireland’s court battle is not entirely over yet despite spending almost seven years locked in a legal dispute with the Home Ministry.

The Christian of Melanau ethnicity still has to return to the Kuala Lumpur High Court, where the judge will decide on two constitutional issues relating to her right to religious freedom and equality before the law.

One of the constitutional matters is Jill Ireland’s application for a court declaration that she has the right to import the CDs, as provided for by the Federal Constitution’s Article 8 on the freedom of religion.

The High Court will also decide on Jill Ireland’s bid for a declaration that the Constitution’s Article 11 guarantees her equality before the law and protection from discrimination on grounds of religion in the administration of law ― especially the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and the Customs Act 1967.

However, her lawyer said the court has only scheduled September 18 for case management and not for hearing.

The whole legal dispute was sparked off by the Home Ministry’s 2008 seizure of Jill Ireland’s eight CDs at the Sepang airport upon her return from Indonesia.

Following the May 11, 2008 seizure, Jill Ireland filed for judicial review in August the same year against the Home Minister and the government of Malaysia.

On July 21 last year, High Court judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof ruled that the Home Ministry was wrong to detain the CDs based on a point of law, also ordering the government to return the CDs and pay RM5,000 in legal costs.