KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The Home Ministry (KDN) is closely monitoring the modus operandi of three entities that sell the Quran online in Malaysia without the ministry's approval.
The ministry's Enforcement and Control Division secretary Mohd Nawardi Saad said most of the Quran sold online came from a neighbouring country that did not meet Malaysia’s requirements on printing standards.
"Our investigation found that the sellers or agents buy the Quran stock and do not apply for import licence approval from KDN thus the prints cannot be reviewed by the authorities.
"In Malaysia, the printing of our Quranic texts is based on the Saudi Arabian printing system, called Rasm Uthmani, but our neighbouring country has a different printing standard and in terms of waqaf marking (signs to stop reading) and the ibtida' (the signs to start reading) are also different from what we use here," Mohd Nawardi told Bernama.
He stressed that those who sold the Quran without KDN's approval could be charged under Section 8(1)(d) of the Quranic Text Printing Act 1986 which, upon conviction, would be liable to a fine of up to RM20,000 or five years in jail or both.
Mohd Nawardi said no arrest has been made thus far but the division was gathering information and evidence before taking further action.
In the meantime, he said his division would continue to conduct daily checks at business premises, post offices and the country's entry points to ensure that no Quran without KDN's approval stamp is released to the public.
He explained that the Quran with the KDN's approval had a special blue-coloured stamp in Jawi that says “Lembaga Pengawalan dan Pelesenan Pencetakan Al-Quran memperakui bahawa ayat-ayat Al-Quran yang terkandung di dalam teks ini adalah betul,” and KDN had also added new features – a QR code and hologram.
On Feb 7, 178 copies of the Holy Quran without KDN's approval were seized from a premises in Sungai Petani.
"We ask the public to be more careful when purchasing Quran online because most of them are not registered with KDN. The public should continue to report on the matter," Kedah Enforcement and Control Division director Zaki Mohamed said.
According to the Malaysia Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director-general Datuk Mohamad Nordin Ibrahim, Quran with KDN's approval has undergone stringent checking and is free from printing errors.
Jakim welcomed KDN’s action in addressing the issue, and stressed that only copies of the Quran that received KDN approval could be sold and used in Malaysia.
Local religious bookstore owner Muhammad Isa hoped authorities would take appropriate action against offenders who sold Quran without KDN approval.
He said it was not fair to other religious bookstore owners who had to adhere to various processes set by the authorities before they could sell KDN-approved Quran to the public but those who sell online can easily skip those processes.
“I hope KDN can catch them all and impose heavy penalties on them," he said. - Bernama
