KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad came to Datuk Ibrahim Ali’s defence today, claiming the Malay rights leader had not meant it as an insult when he suggested burning Malay language bibles for using the word “Allah”.

Dr Mahathir (pic), who is the patron of Ibrahim’s Malay rights group Perkasa, told a press conference here that the Pasir Mas MP had merely been referring to a common practice of burning publications that have been identified as illegal.

“Usually, if there is a publication that has been banned, the action taken is to burn these books.

“So his (Ibrahim) view is that if this Bible is illegal in terms of policy, he chose to opt for the common method of burning them,” he said after launching the coffee table book “Antartica: Malaysia’s Journey to the Ice” at Universiti Malaya here.

“So I don’t think that he (Ibrahim) had any intention to insult the kitab injil... it was not his intention.”

Last week, The Malaysian Insider reported Dr Mahathir as saying that while Ibrahim supports Umno, the fiery leader does not speak for the party.

“It is unfortunate that Ibrahim Ali should suggest burning the newly-printed bibles. That may be the way we rid ourselves of unwanted publications. It cannot be done for the Bible any more than it can be done for the Quran,” Dr Mahathir had written in his chedet.cc blog posting.

“But what Ibrahim said does not reflect the views of Umno. Unfortunately, some politicians would like to make it so in order to gain political mileage,” the former prime minister added.

Dr Mahathir, who still wields much clout within Umno, was quick to stress that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s lynchpin party believed “Allah” to be exclusive to Islam but “it had never advocated burning the Malay-language bibles which uses this word”.

The country’s longest-serving prime minister of 22 years had also given a reminder that the “Allah” controversy had been settled years ago “through the acceptance that the Christians of Sabah and Sarawak could continue to use the word Allah in their Malay-language bible and teachings but these should not be used in the rest of the country”.

The 87-year-old had been instrumental in heading off a potential faith crisis from erupting over the word when the “Allah” dispute first arose in the early 1980s – shortly after he took office as prime minister.

Muslim and Christian leaders here have been at loggerheads over use of “Allah” despite a 2009 High Court judgment that ruled Muslims did not have an exclusive right to the Arabic word.

Muslims are Malaysia’s biggest religious group at 60 per cent, while the minority Christians, who form just under 10 per cent of the 28 million total population, have been at the forefront of issues confronting the non-Muslim community, which are provided for under the country’s constitution.

The debate resurfaced last December after DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who is also the Penang chief minister, called on Putrajaya to lift a ban on Malay-language bibles in Sabah and Sarawak, where the “Allah” word had been in use for centuries.

A Sabah church group has also alleged that the religious freedom of Christian Bumiputeras was under attack, pointing out that most adherents of the faith in Malaysia came from east Malaysia and used the Malay language.

A Buddhist group has urged the National Unity and Integration Department, which is under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department, to resolve the drawn-out dispute over the usage of “Allah”.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department also upset church leaders with its sermon last Friday in which it warned Muslims nationwide of “enemies of Islam” that would try to confuse them into believing that all religions share the same god.

Retired Attorney-General Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman has urged the authorities to speed up action against Ibrahim over his Bible-burning threat, saying any further delay in acting against the veteran politician could be held against the establishment ahead of Election 2013.


By Clara Chooi / The Malaysian Insider

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/dr-m-no-malice-in-ibrahim-alis-bible-burning-threat/

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