Cabinet will present plan to strengthen policies on use of 'Allah' to Conference of Rulers, says Anwar

PUTRAJAYA: The Cabinet will present to the Conference of Rulers the government's proposal to strengthen policies with regards to the use of the word "Allah", says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The Prime Minister said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had consented for the Cabinet to do so.

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He said the Cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday (May 17) had discussed the decision to withdraw its appeal against Jill Ireland's case in relation to publication materials containing the word "Allah".

"The Cabinet took note that the decision (to withdraw) only revolved around an administrative matter and it does not change the decision made by the Federal Court in 2014.

"The Cabinet would like to stress that the government respects, acknowledges and adopts state enactments and the decree by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on Feb 27, expressing that existing policies on the use of the word 'Allah' remain," Anwar said in a statement.

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The Prime Minister asserted that the government would continue to defend the Federal Constitution, particularly Article 3 in relation to Islam being the religion of the Federation, and that other religions may be practised in peace and harmony.

On May 15, the government withdrew its appeal against the High Court decision which allowed the word "Allah", among others, to be used by non-Muslims in publications for educational purposes.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail explained the move was due to a contradiction found between a Home Ministry administrative order and a Cabinet decision made in 1986.

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He further said that this was related to the confiscation of published materials at that time and not a theological issue involving the use of the word.

Saifuddin explained that the ministry had carefully examined the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court on March 10, 2021, and found that there was a contradiction in the administrative instructions which caused the decision to favour Jill Ireland.

Justice Nor Bee Ariffin, who is now a Court of Appeal judge, had ruled that a 1986 Home Ministry directive to prohibit the use of the words "Allah", "Baitullah", "Kaabah" and "solat" by non-Muslims was illegal and unconstitutional.

This followed the court's decision to allow a judicial review by a Christian woman of Melanau descent, Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, to exercise her constitutional right to practise her religion.

ALSO READ: Decision to drop appeal over 'Allah' use due to administrative contradiction from 1986, says Saifuddin

The legal action by Jill Ireland started in 2008 when eight CDs she had brought in from Indonesia were confiscated by Customs officers at an airport in Sepang as they contained the word "Allah".

She then filed for a judicial review to challenge the seizure of the CDs and sought a declaration from the court that her constitutional rights had been violated, among others.

In 2014, the High Court ordered the Home Ministry to return the CDs to her but did not address the constitutional points as it was bound by a Federal Court ruling.

The order to return the CDs was upheld by the Court of Appeal the following year but Jill Ireland proceeded with her challenge of the Home Ministry's directive that resulted in the forfeiture.