Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said the fate of Bibles confiscated by the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) will be known after the latter's investigation is completed.

He said the return of the Bibles depends on whether Jais intends to use the items as evidence.

"We have to discuss whether Jais and Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) want to use the Bibles as evidence in their prosecution.

"If not, then there is no need to hold them," he told journalists after handing out Mandarin oranges in Bandar Tun Razak this morning.

On Jan 2 Jais raided the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) and seized over 300 copies of the Malay and Iban bible alleging that they contravene the state enactment on the use of the word 'Allah'.

The move bypassed the Selangor government and has opened a can of worms over the chain of command of the state religious authorities.

Abdul Khalid said the state government did not want to appear to be interfering, but urged Jais to complete its probe as fast as it can.

"We must not interfere, because if we interfere then if they (Jais) go to court and say we interfered, that will not be proper.

"I think we (have to) take a step back and allow both parties to prepare their cases but our advice is to do it as quickly as possible and within the framework of the justice system," he noted.

'Federal gov't playing hide and seek'

Abdul Khalid made the remarks after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak yesterday insisted that the 10-point solution which allowed the word ‘Allah’ to be used in copies of the Bible were subjected to state enactments .

Before this, Abdul Khalid had urged the federal government to come clean on whether the copies of the Bible which used the word 'Allah' that had been confiscated from the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) conformed with the 10-point solution and if they did, should be returned.

However, the federal government's latest stance has effectively pushed the ball back to the state government's court as Selangor has an enactment banning non-Muslims from using the word 'Allah'.

Abdul Khalid blasted the federal government for playing a "hide and seek game", adding that the Malay-language Bible, or Alkitab, was in the state because of the federal government.

"The federal government is in charge of security and the movement of books, it is their release to allow the books to come to Malaysia which landed in Selangor," he stressed.

Therefore, Abdul Khalid said the federal government should at least have the courtesy of addressing the matter instead of pushing it to the state government.

Abdul Khalid also denied Mais' allegation of interference in its and Jais' investigation work.

"There is no such thing as intervention, but going to certain premises - especially with regard to religious issues - I think we must be very sensitive. We are in a multi-racial and multi-religious society.

"The courtesy is they (Jais and Mais) have to tell the exco and menteri besar of what is going to happen and we will evaluate whether it makes sense from a perspective of managing a state," he said.

Abdul Khalid added that since the federal government has taken a legal viewpoint with regard to the 10-point solution, he said in future the state government will advise that such copies of the Bible be moved out of the state instead of confiscation.