Malaysia Refuses to Return 10K Detained Bibles

Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 Posted: 3:22:34AM HKT

Malaysia authorities have rejected pleas from leaders of the Christian community to release 10,000 imported Bahasa Indonesia Bibles, an official told The Associated Press.

The Bibles were confiscated for translating God using the word ‘Allah’, which leaders in the Muslim majority country say is reserved for the Muslim god and banned for other uses.

Debate over whether Christians may use the term to refer to their God has led to friction between Christians and Muslims in Malaysia.

The government nearly revoked the publishing license of a Catholic weekly for using ‘Allah’ as a translation for God.

Authorities warned The Catholic Herald not to print ‘Allah’ in the future, but the Catholic leadership behind the paper mounted an ongoing legal challenge to revoke the ban on the word.

Christian leaders point out that the word ‘Allah’ has been used for centuries to refer generally to God in both Indonesian and Malaysian languages.

The government, however, argues that ‘Allah’ is an Islamic word and its use by Christians and others will upset Muslims.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia, which brings together both Catholics and Protestants in the country, issued a statement in which it described the seizure, in which some 15,000 Bibles were confiscated, as ‘ridiculous and offensive’.

“This constitutional right (to practice freely) is rendered illusory if Christians in Malaysia are denied access to Bibles in a language with which they are familiar,” CFM Chairman Bishop Ng Moon Hing said.

He rejected concerns that Bibles in the Malaysian language containing ‘Allah’ will upset Muslims.

“Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia have been used since before the independence of our country and have never been the cause of any public disorder,” he said.

Nathanael Ng
nathanael@christianpost.com