According to BSM president Lee Min Choon, JAIS admitted to sending an official to purchase a bible from the group’s office. — Picture by Choo Choy May
PETALING JAYA, April 15 — The Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) alleged today that the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) had set its sights on the Christian association as far back as last August, when it surreptitiously purchased a bible from the group’s office here.
BSM president Lee Min Choon said that during his interrogation by Jais this January, the department admitted to sending an official to make the purchase. It later produced a receipt for the bible, purportedly to prove that the society had sold the holy book to a Muslim.
“Obviously they came in here under false pretences and they were gathering evidence against us,” Lee told a press conference at BSM's office this afternoon.
“According to the Jais officer, the receipt was dated some time in August last year. So in August last year, they were already laying the groundwork,” he said.
Lee later admitted that in practice, BSM does not demand to see the identity cards of its customers.
He said it was natural to assume that no Muslim would walk into the society’s office in Damansara Kim here to purchase a publication that he knows is for Christian consumption only.
“Our bibles carry the sign of the cross and it says right on the front cover that this is a Christian publication, as required by the 10-point solution,” he said.
Lee was referring to the 2011 10-point deal mooted by Putrajaya at the height of the row over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.
The 10-point solution allows for bibles in Malay and indigenous languages to be printed, imported and distributed nationwide with certain conditions imposed for Peninsula Malaysia.
“So it is not possible for a Muslim to mistakenly walk into this place thinking it is a Muslim bookshop and that this is a copy of the Quran,” Lee said.
On January 3, Jais officials accompanied by policemen raided BSM's office here, confiscating over 300 copies of the bible in the Malay and Iban languages.
The affair sparked an uproar, leading to the Selangor government issuing an order to Jais on January 8 to return the bibles to BSM, if the holy scriptures comply with the Cabinet's 10-point solution.
Jais had then ignored the directive. Instead, it pressed ahead with questioning Lee, along with the society’s office manager, Sinclair Wong, over the bibles.
Since then, Lee said the religious authority and the police have not revealed the reason for the raid or the outcome of their investigation.
“Up to this moment, we don't know what was the offence we committed. They never told us. In the press, some said it was because of proselytisation of Muslims, and another time, it was about the use of 'Allah',” he said.
It is believed that the Jais raid was conducted using a 1988 Selangor enactment which prohibits non-Muslims from using 35 Arabic words and phrases in their faiths, including “Allah”, as part of measures to control the propagation of other religions to Muslims.
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