More than 300 Bibles were seized and two Christian leaders arrested last 2 January in the Malaysian state of Selangor, the Bible Society of Malaysia stated in a communiqué sent to Fides news agency. Police said the “Bible Society of Malaysia” had violated a Selangor state ruling passed in October 2013 banning non-Muslims from using the word “Allah”.

 

Malay Christians had feared that the ruling – which only applied to Catholic news weekly Herald – would be misinterpreted, causing problems for Christian communities and the distribution of Christian publications, staring with the Bible. These fears have now proven true. After the ruling, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak and other state officials explained that the ban did not apply to liturgical celebrations and the Bible. Christians were assured that their worshipping practices would not be affected. But yesterday’s events only highlighted existing ambiguities, the Bible Society of Malaysia said. In the communiqué sent to Fides, the Society stated the Bibles that were seized had been imported from nearby Indonesia, where Bahasha is spoken. Bahasha is a language used in both Malaysia and Indonesia.

 

The dispute over non-Muslims’ use of the word “Allah”, began at the start of 2009, when the Ministry of Interior threatened to withdraw Catholic news weekly Herald’s publishing licence after it had used the term. The Catholic Church filed an appeal on the grounds that this violated its constitutional rights. That same year the Church won the case but the in October 2013 the Malaysian court of appeal reintroduced the ban. Over 60% of Malaysia’s 28 million population is Muslim, while Christians account for just 9% of it.

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/malaysia-malaysia-malaysia-30994/