It is unfair to blame the Pakatan-led Selangor government over the decision by the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) moving its base to Kuala Lumpur, said PKR vice-president Tian Chua.

Instead, the Batu MP blamed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for failing to respect the rights of Christians and creating a scenario with two systems in a country, with gaps and discrepancies.

“ My contention is that, this issue cannot be solved by the Selangor state government alone,” he told a press conference in Jalan Ipoh today.

He said the Pakatan state government was stuck in a situation where the 1988 enactment banning non-Muslims from using the word ‘Allah’ was passed long before Pakatan took over the state.

Blaming Pakatan for lacking interest to help, BSM announced the shift in order to avoid the reach of the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) that seized 320 copies of the Malay and Iban language Bible from its premises in Petaling Jaya in January.

While Islamic affairs are under state jurisdiction, the Federal Territories and Sarawak are the only places in Malaysia which do not have legislation or regulations prohibiting usage of the ‘Allah’ word by non-Muslims.

In 2010, the cabinet had brokered a ‘10-point Agreement’, which guarantees that the ban will not be imposed on the AlKitab as long it is stamped with the words ‘For Christians only’ and a cross on the front cover, and is used only by Christians.

To this, Tian pointed out that it was Najib who started such an argument, and allowed the country to have two names for God as well as different practices of faith and exercise of rights in different territories.

“And again, I urge the prime minister to show some leadership to resolve the problem and we can’t go on like this, because otherwise we are going to have so many gaps and discrepancies... we can’t let this drag on for too long, we need a solution,” he stressed.

Ticking off Jais, Tian had also slammed the religious authorities for not following advice from the state government, leading to such a dilemma.

Teresa: Non-Muslims have been bullied

Meanwhile, DAP vice-president Teresa Kok said the tense situation was exacerbated as many non-Muslims felt that they had been bullied.

“We shouldn’t forget that there are so many places of worship for non-Muslims in Selangor, are all of them going to shift to KL? It is not possible to carry this out,” she questioned.

Apart from the issue of the ‘Allah’ word in the Bible, Kok also pointed out the recent custody dispute between S Deepa and her Muslim-convert former husband that greatly offended some other non-Muslims.

“So we (have) come to the situation that whether at federal or state level, the non-Muslims feel that they have been bullied,” she added.