CLS Christian Lawyer Magazine June 2014_Proofforweb.pdf Jun. 2014 | Page 24

AADVOCATES INT E R NAT I O NA L
DVOCATES INT E R NAT I O NA L

A Knock on the Door:
How Life Together Strengthens
Us for the Unexpected
BY BRENT MCBURNEY

Y

our staf hears an unexpected knock on closed oice doors.
hey hear shouting. When you arrive to sort things out,
you are arrested. hat is hardly anyone’s idea of a great way
to begin the New Year. But that is exactly what happened to
Christian lawyer Lee Min Choon earlier this year.
On January 2, 2014, while conducting a routine inventory at
the closed oices of the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) in
Kuala Lumpur, the BSM staf was suddenly interrupted by a
loud banging on the glass doors and the shouting of 20 enforcement oicers from the Jabatan Agama Islamic Selangor
( JAIS), the Islamic religious authorities, demanding that they
open the oice. he staf called in Lee, BSM’s President and
board chairman, to clear things up. he outcome of the incident was far from ordinary.

Why were Islamic authorities policing non-Muslims,
and how did it come to this?

In April 2011, the Atorney General and other federal ministers
met with BSM President Lee and other evangelical Christian
leaders to discuss the issue and came up with a 10-point solution. In that ruling by the federal government, BSM was allowed
to continue to publish the Alkitab Bible for distribution without
restrictions in East Malaysia, while for West Malaysia, the Bibles
were required to have a cross and the words “penerbitan Christian” (Christian publication) on the cover. BSM made sure that
all of its Bibles were fully compliant with the 10-point solution.

A Political Controversy Grows
Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim nation. A litle less than
ten percent of the population is Christian. hose believers
have, however, used the Bahasa (Malaysia’s oicial language)
word “Allah” to refer to the Christian God since 1629 in the
Alkitab Bible. It has only been in the past seven years that extremist Muslim groups pushed to ban the use of “Allah” by
non-Muslims. Many believe that the eforts are mainly for political reasons.
he controversy arose in 2007 when Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar banned the Roman Catholic Church Malay version
of a weekly periodical, “he Herald,” from printing “Allah.” he
church challenged the ban in the courts. Lower courts ruled
that non-Muslims were banned from using the word. In 2010,
the High Court of Malaysia briely reversed the ban, resulting
in mob violence against churches, temples and even a convent
school.

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A Blow to Religious Freedom
Several Roman Catholic churches in Malaysia and “he Herald,” however, continued to use the word “Allah” in print and
during services. he legal case continued through the system
and on October 14, 2013, in a blow to religious freedom, a
Court of Appeal ruling deemed the use of the word “Allah”
exclusive to Islam. In November, the Sultan of Selangor state
took a further step, extending the ban to Bahasa-language Bibles and churches, in clear contradiction to the government’s
10-point solution. he next logical step?—a raid on the BSM
oices.
JAIS, the Islamic religious authorities, are granted power under the Malaysian constitution to govern the afairs of Muslim
citizens. hey do not, however, have jurisdiction to police the
afairs of non-Muslims. Until this year, they have not tried. hat
all changed on January 2.
THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER | JUNE 2014