The Federal court decision on the word Allah only applies to its usage in the Catholic Churchs Herald NEWSPAPER (which is a newspaper and not a Bible). This Herald ban is NOT a Federal law passed but is a Home Ministry circular sent to the Catholic Church under the Home Ministrys printings and publications act. This circular is the main issue of this law-suit. Repeat. It is not a Federal law. The last circular issued by the Home Ministry regarding the use of Allah in bibles was on May 11, 2006, with the home ministrys allowing the use of “Allah” in bibles in Malay, as long as they were stamped with a cross, and the words “For Christians”, in Malay. This essentially means that throughout the entire Malaysia (both peninsular and Sabah and Sarawak), the use of bibles with the word Allah is allowed by the Federal govt. This makes sense as you cant have one Federal law to cover the entire Malaysia but specifically exclude Sabah and Sarawak. There is no specific act of federal law or in the constitution that bans it. However, all the states in Peninsular Malaysia have state laws with a blanket ban on the use of Allah in printed matter - including bibles. These laws were created (but rarely enforced) by the respective states at various times between the year 1980 to the year 2004. Sabah and Sarawak do not have similar state laws. Therefore, theoretically, the only laws preventing the usage of Allah in Bibles are each individual state laws since there is no Federal law that prohibits this. Therefore, if Selangor or Penang or Kelantan or Perak or Johor or any other state amends or repeals their individual state laws, the usage of Allah in bibles is immediately allowed and breaks no laws anymore. So, what are you waiting for MB Azmin Ali and CM Lim Guan Eng. Both of you have 2/3 majority under you, no? -- Special message to LGE: Your 2012 Christmas message said For this reason, DAP urges the BN Federal government to allow the use of the word Allah on the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible.. tinyurl/b3yvsp8 Dear LGE, now I am telling you that the BN Federal Government NEVER banned the use of the word Allah on the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible. It is YOUR own state law that banned it. PR has 30 seats out of 40 with only 6 being Muslims. I am sure you could easily find the 27 DUN members (2/3 majority) to vote to repeal your Penang State Islamic Religious Administration Enactment 2004 There is no Sultan in Penang, so things are less thorny there for you. Or they could just remove those banned words listed via a gazette (in Section 48(3) of that Penang 2004 act.) - that doesnt require 2/3 majority - only a simple majority will do. That is if you really really really wanted to do this instead of falsely blaming BN Federal Govt. Written by Lim Sian See
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 04:43:33 +0000