KUCHING: Bahasa Malaysia bibles that use the word “Allah” for God are still banned in Selangor, Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali said in Sarawak yesterday, but added that the state’s Islamic authorities had been told to engage more with other religions.

Mohamed Azmin said the ban was in place due to the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions Enactment 1988, which prohibits non-Muslims from using the Arabic word for “God”.

“We have to respect the law,” he told reporters in Kuching at the end of a three-day working visit to the state.

However, Mohamed Azmin said that following the return of seized Alkitab and Iban-language Bup Kudus bibles in November last year, he had given his support to Selangor Muslim leaders and the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) to engage with Christian leaders “to educate” themselves on other religious faiths.

Mohamed Azmin said he had asked them to visit churches and the result of the engagement for the last two months had been positive.

“We need to continue the dialogue between Christians and Muslims so that there will be better understanding and to create a harmonious environment in our multi-religious and multiracial society,” he said.

Some 300 copies of the Alkitab and Bup Kudus were seized by Jais from the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) bookshop in Petaling Jaya in January last year.

They were returned in November, not to the BSM, but to the Sarawak Christian community through the Association of Churches Sarawak.

During his working visit, Mohamed Azmin also met with Anglican Archbishop for Southeast Asia Datuk Bolly Lapok and thanked him for his part in resolving the issue of the seized bibles.

He said he had also discussed with Bolly how more inter-faith dialogue could be held so that Christians and Muslims could understand each other better.

“We [in Selangor] certainly can learn a lot from Sarawak,” said Mohamed Azmin. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 4, 2015.