PETALING JAYA: Amid the re-ignited furore over the ‘Allah’ row, the Cabinet still stands by its commitment to the 10-point solution allowing Malay and Iban bibles to use the word ‘Allah’ and the import of the bibles into the country.
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the issue of over 300 Malay and Iban language Bibles being seized by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) earlier this month was a state matter and the federal government would not intervene.
“Our (Cabinet) position is clear. The federal government is committed to the 10-point solution.
“But the 10-point solution can’t supersede the state enactment of religious issues,” Khairy was quoted by Bernama as telling reporters after speaking at the 16th Malaysia Strategic Outlook Conference 2014 in Kuala Lumpur today.
He also reportedly blamed Selangor for reigniting the decades-long debate with Jais’s raid on the Bible of Society of Malaysia (BSM) earlier this month, which saw two of the society’s leaders arrested and released later that same evening.
Khairy, who is the Umno Youth chief, added the Selangor government should resolve that issue first before any dialogue was held between Pakatan Rakyat and BN.
“That issue has to be resolved first before any dialogue between BN and Pakatan. There’s nothing that we can do,” Khairy was quoted as saying by a news portal.
Khairy was referring to Anwar’s invitation yesterday for bipartisan talks between the two coalitions on economic and racial issues plaguing the country.
He added that the Cabinet had discussed the Allah issue in its meeting yesterday.
The 10-point-solution, announced by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Idris Jala in 2011, allows bibles in all languages to not only be imported into the country, but to be printed locally in the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak.
However, the Malay edition of those bibles contain the word ‘Allah’, a word non-Muslims were prohibited from using in Selangor.
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah had also said last Sunday that several words including ‘Allah’ were the exclusive rights of Muslims, citing a 1986 decree by the National Fatwa council.
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