‘Withdraw 10-year fatwa prohibiting 32 words’

KOTA BELUD : A Sabah lawyer cum activist has challenged the state authority to compel a public-salaried mufti here to withdraw a 2003 fatwa or decree that purportedly prohibits 32 Malay/Arabic words from being used by Christians.

Peter Marajin, said the fatwa which was issued 10 years ago was uncalled for as it infringed on the right of the people to freely practice their religion as enshrined in the Federal Constitution and all conditional documents prior to forming Malaysia in 1963.

“Assurances by various leaders of the ruling party that the disputed word “Allah” can freely be used by the Sabah Christians is a mere “damage controlled” attempt by the Government to diffuse the anger among the Christians in the state after the Court of Appeal ruling banning the Catholic Herald from using the word Allah in its Bahasa Melayu articles,” claimed Marajin in a statement issued here yesterday.

According to Marajin, the statement by Sabah federal minister Ewon Ebin and a other Malayan leaders that the disputed word “Allah” can freely be used is akin to closing one eye on the existing fatwa.

“Little did they know or rather they chose to close one eye to the fact that there is in fact a fatwa issued by the Mufti Kerajaan Sabah on 1 June 2003 (No. 1,039) under Section 35 of the Enakmen Pentadbiran Undang-Undang Islam 1992 (Enakmen No. 13 tahun 1992) and published in the State Government Gazette (Jil. LVIII) [No.50] dated 11 December 2003 which, among others, effectively banned non-Muslims from using the word “ALLAH”.

“As far as I can remember this fatwa has not been taken back, amended or annulled.

“Along side the word “Allah” the words “Firman,”, “Wahyu”, “Iman”, “Rasul”, “Nabi”and “Injil” were also banned among the 32 words forbidden by non-Muslims to use.

“Now with the fatwa is still in effect, can Ewon and others do a self declaration that non-muslims, especially Christians, can still use it?,” asked Maranjin.

He further questioned if these statements by the leaders were a bid to mislead Sabahans.

“These leaders should come up with more convincing statements with regard to this issue,” he said adding the state government should immediately direct the state mufti to issue another fatwa to annul the fatwa that ban the use of Allah and other words.