PUTRAJAYA: Sarawak Christian Jill Ireland will oppose an application by the Federal Territories Islamic Council (MAIWP) to intervene in Putrajaya’s appeal against a High Court ruling ordering the return of eight CDs containing the word “Allah”.

Her lawyer Annou Xavier said an affidavit in reply would be filed in the Court of Appeal, ahead of a hearing on March 5 on whether to allow the council’s application.

“We will be filing the papers this week outlining why our client is against the council being made party to the suit,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

It is believed that Ireland’s main grounds of opposing the application are planked on the basis that the council did not have any legal interest.

The council has since filed an application seeking to intervene, giving the following reasons:

• MAIWP has the right to regulate how non-Muslims pray and the material they use, including audio and texts.

• The Yang di-Pertuan Agong and/or Sultan, as head of Islam for the relevant state, has the right to regulate all matters relating to Islam including the use of the word “Allah”.

• Some of the relief sought by Ireland includes the right to use, import, export, distribute any Christian material with the word “Allah” for her own edification in professing her religion as guaranteed by the constitution, and as such, MAIWP has the right to regulate or prohibit such material.

• Ireland’s act of using the material with the word “Allah” will cause confusion leading to unrest and public disorder.

• The act of Ireland in using the material will contravene Section 298A of the Penal Code and police must be empowered to investigate and seize such material, which could pose a threat to security and arrest the person in possession of those items.

• MAIWP has the right to refer such matters to the syariah courts if any non-Muslim is in possession of material with words like “Allah”, “kaabah” and “solat”.

Judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof last July ordered the return of the CDs to Ireland, a Melanau clerk who had brought them in from Indonesia, but Putrajaya managed to obtain a stay to retain them on grounds of public interest.

Ireland’s legal team argued that the case was about her constitutional right as a bumiputera Christian.

Putrajaya submitted that the minister had exercised his power under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 to withhold the material if it was likely to be prejudicial to public order.

Ireland also filed an appeal against the High Court decision, which failed to address her constitutional right to use the word “Allah”, as the court had only ordered the CDs to be returned to her.

No appeal date has been fixed yet. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 26, 2015.