The consignee of the 5,000 copies of the Al Kitab, the Malay-languaged version of the Bible, has collected them. They were impounded by the Home Ministry for the last two years.

However, with the stamps put on the inside cover of the copies by the ministry, the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) said that they cannot be distributed to Christians and that they would be preserved as ‘museum pieces'.

NONE "The 5,000 copies of the Al Kitab that had been defaced by the Home Ministry cannot be sold to Christian buyers.

Instead, they will be respectfully preserved as museum pieces and as a heritage for the Christian Church in Malaysia.

"This unfortunately will result in a loss of RM70,000 for BSM," it said in a statement.

The BSM had imported 5,000 copies of Al Kitab with the sign of a cross and the words Penerbitan Kristian embossed on the front cover, in compliance with a 2005 Home Ministry regulation.

However, the copies of the Bible were detained since March 20, 2009, until the ministry wrote to BSM on March 15 this year, saying new batches of the Bible must be stamped with serial numbers.

"Before BSM could indicate acceptance or rejection of these new conditions, the ministry informed BSM the next day that it had stamped the copies and asked BSM to collect them.

"BSM has since then made known our position that the action of the ministry in stamping the Bible amounted to an act of defacement and disrespect of the holy book of the Christians," it said.

Preventing further defacement

The society also said it collected the stamped copies this morning to prevent them from being ‘defaced' further.

"In view of the Home Ministry's tendency to take arbitrary action without consulting the affected parties or respect for the religious sensitivities of the Christian community, BSM decided to collect the 5,000 copies of the Al Kitab to prevent the possibility of further acts of desecration or disrespect being committed against the holy book of the Christians by the ministry and its officers," it said.

economic transformation programme 210910 idris jala 02 It was previously reported that Minister in Prime Minister's Department Idris Jala ( left ) - who is also Christian - announced that the government had rescinded its decision to put serial numbers on the Malay language Bible, but instead placed conditions that the the copies should include words 'For Christianity' in Arial font size 16 to be either printed at source or stamped at the receiving port.

The minister also said that some unnamed ‘Christian donors' have also offered to replace the stamped copies should the consignee refuse to collect them, an offer flatlt rejected by BSM.

"Concerning the offer to compensate BSM for the cost of this shipment, BSM wishes to make its stand clear that BSM will only

accept a cheque from the home ministry and will not accept any money from so-called ‘Christian donors'," it said.

30,000 copies still uncollected

Meanwhile there are another 30,000 copies of the Bible still lying in the ministry's office in Kuching, uncollected.

The consignee, who did not want to be named, said that there was no immediate plan to collect the Bible.

"We are going to hold on. We want to pray about it first and seek the views of church elders and members," he told Malaysiakini , adding that the copies of the Bible were paid for by the congregations of several churches in Sarawak.

The consignment arrived at Kuching Port on Jan 11, but the consignee was advised against taking it out the following day as the

copies contain the word 'Allah'.

The 30,000 copies, costing US$26,400, were printed in Indonesia for distribution to churches, schools and longhouses, mostly in the Betong and Saratok areas of Sarawak.

It is also understood that a recent meeting chaired by the Christian Federation of Malaysia - the umbrella body representing 90 percent of churches in the country - reached consensus on not collecting the copies of Bible as yet.