Judges “misinformed”, Allah ruling tantamount to persecuting Christians - Archbishop Pakiam

The head of the Malaysian Catholic Church today said that the decision of the Court of Appeal on the Allah issue was tantamount to persecuting Christians in Malaysia.

Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam (pic) noted that the three judges were grossly misinformed in arriving at the decision to ban Catholic weekly Herald from using the word Allah.

He said Christians in Malaysia have been using the word peacefully for centuries and "we do not accept the statement of these judges".


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Court allows Putrajaya’s appeal against ‘Allah’ ruling

The Catholic Church today failed to strike out Putrajaya’s appeal against the 2009 landmark High Court ruling that upheld Christians’ right to refer to God as “Allah”.

Court of Appeal Justice Datuk Seri Abu Samah Nordin ruled that the subject matter of the appeal was “not academic”.

“It is still a live issue,” Abu Samah said in his judgment today.

“The controversy has yet to be resolved,” he said to a packed courtroom.

With the decision, the church will have to duke it out in the courtroom with Putrajaya again next month, prolonging the over four-year-long legal tug-of-war between Muslims and Christians here over one word — Allah.

Abu Samah was heading a three-man Bench that included Justices Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim and Datuk Rohana Yusuf.

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Smaller turnout than expected at ‘Allah’ protest

The highly-anticipated protest against the Catholic Church’s “Allah” appeal today drew a smaller turnout than expected despite Malay rights group Perkasa’s repeated calls for its members and supporters to turn up in a show of Muslim solidarity.

Around 200 people gathered outside the Court of Appeal here as they awaited the court’s decision on the Catholic Church’s application to dismiss the government’s appeal against the landmark decision to allow non-Muslims to use the word “Allah”.

“We’re not here today to protest but the show solidarity and support to our fellow Muslim lawyers to fight for us.

“Let’s respect one another and don’t do anything to provoke anyone,” Iqbal Hakim from Persatuan Belia Islam Nasional told the crowd.

On Monday, Muslim-Malay supremacy group Perkasa vowed to rally outside the court to protest the church’s attempt to use the word “Allah”, which it has insisted belongs exclusively to Muslims.

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On eve of trial, Catholic priest cautions against raising ‘Allah’

Catholic priest Rev Father Lawrence Andrew has implored Malaysians to refrain from raising the “Allah” issue now that the disputed word has returned to court, after Muslim supremacists declared a rally in protest against the Church tomorrow.

Andrew, who is also the editor of Catholic paper, Herald, said the issue “should not be tried by intimidation or in the media”, in response to Perkasa’s declaration.

“First and foremost, it’s a court case so people speaking about it outside the court is subjudice,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted yesterday.

Self-declared defenders of Islam, Perkasa, had sparked alarm among Malaysia’s religious minorities with its intent to demonstrate against the Church outside the Court of Appeal while the case is underway as it called to mind the tensions that spiralled into violence four years ago after the High Court ruled “Allah” was not exclusive to Muslims.

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Pray for ‘Allah’ appeal, Archbishop urges Catholics

Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam urged Catholics nationwide to pray for tomorrow’s highly-anticipated Court of Appeal hearing.

Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam has urged Catholics nationwide to pray for tomorrow’s highly-anticipated Court of Appeal hearing, when the Catholic Church is scheduled once again to duke it out with the government over its right to use “Allah”.

The hearing could see another legal victory for the Church or prolong its legal battle for the right to refer to its God as “Allah”, the word in the centre of a protracted legal battle that has put a major strain on religious ties between Christians and Muslims here.

”The Archbishop of KL calls on Catholics to gather in Churches on Thursday, 22 Aug 2013 from 9am-12noon to pray for a just verdict while the Allah case is being heard at the Court of Appeal,” read a brief text message forwarded to The Malay Mail Online by Father Lawrence Andrew, the editor of Catholic weekly Herald.

Yesterday, the Catholic Church’s Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur made a similar plea for prayer for “peace and good sense” to prevail, having voiced its concern that recent statements over the “Allah” issue may reignite sentiments that have been simmering since a landmark 2009 High Court ruling.

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In Borders case, common sense triumphs over bad faith

In the face of Malaysia’s rising religious conservatism, a civil court judge has boldly ruled on reason and common sense to uphold a Muslim storekeeper’s constitutional right to sell a book Islam’s gatekeepers here found offensive.

The court case involving the local Borders’ sale of Canadian author Irshad Manji’s book “Allah, Liberty and Love” has been closely-watched since it hit national headlines last year after Islamic enforcement officials seized the stock and charged the store manager Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz with violating publication and distribution laws.

Five months after pronouncing the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (JAWI), the home minister and the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic affairs guilty of abusing their powers to illegally prosecute the bookstore’s Muslim manager, Datuk Zaleha Yusof of the Kuala Lumpur High Court has finally released her grounds of judgment.

Though couched in the language of the court, the judge’s strongly-worded explanation kept to a strict interpretation of the law that has given hope to Malaysians that their civil liberties as laid down in the country’s founding document remain as robust as the day they were conceived half a century ago.

“I am satisfied that the applicants have shown existence of illegality, abuse of discretionary powers, irrationality, unreasonable exercise of power, unconstitutionally and that there exists procedural impropriety on the part of the respondents,” Zaleha wrote in her grounds of judgment released last week.

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On YouTube, yet another religious row stirs

Malaysians are again picking up their well-worn pitchforks after a video surfaced on YouTube yesterday allegedly showing a Muslim prayer room in Johor being used by Buddhist tourists for worship.

The 85-second-long video titled “Surau dijadikan tokong???” (A surau turned into a temple?) begins with an external shot of a small building and a close-up of what appears to be a sign in Arabic script over a doorway.

The video’s maker then approaches the building to record what appears to be a prayer session by a dozen white-clad people led by a monk in red and saffron. At the front of the room, the video briefly displays a Buddhist poster below a plaque with Arabic script.

According to reports by several local dailies today, the surau (prayer room) is located within the grounds of Tanjung Sutera Resort, but the resort’s manager has clarified that the tourists were allowed to use the Muslim prayer hall as the other locations were unavailable due to over-booking.

Still, the angry responses are pouring in.

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Your silence is deafening, DAP tells Muhyiddin

The Education Minister’s silence and inaction in the SK Seri Pristana issue is sending out the wrong message to educators in schools nationwide.

DAP's national vice-chairman M. Kula Segaran said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s indifference to the plight of whistleblower Guneswari Kelly, who had to transfer her daughter to a vernacular school, has angered the public.

Guneswari, a parent of a pupil at the school, had exposed how non-Muslim pupils at the school were made to have their recess in a shower room during the Ramadan month after she posted a photo on Facebook.

Her nine-year-old daughter had suffered after that when she became the target of abuse by teachers of the school.

Two days ago, Guneswari told The Malaysian Insider that she will transfer her daughter to a vernacular school in Subang as a result of the bullying. The mother had also been the target of threats.

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SIS warns Jakim against claiming to be voice of God

Malaysia’s religious authorities risk the sin of “shirik” (idolatry) after seemingly speaking for God in judging an online video deemed offensive to Islam, Muslim women’s group Sisters in Islam (SIS) warned yesterday.

On Friday, the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) adjudged a video made by dog trainer Maznah Mohd Yusof, which shows her walking and bathing her dogs, to be an insult to Islam and resulted in the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) pursuing investigations against her.

“What differentiates Jakim’s opinion from that of the lay person is that Jakim’s views are backed up by enforcement powers of the state,” SIS programme manager Suri Kempe told The Malay Mail Online via email yesterday.

“Anybody who questions and challenges the injustice of these views and actions is accused of being against Islam and God,” she said. “This is tantamount to claiming to be the embodiment of God, and Jakim should be very careful as it could be a form of shirik.”

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Joyous Hari Raya celebration at PM's official residence

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor waving the crowd present at the Hari Raya Open House at Sri Perdana

It was a joyous Hari Raya celebration at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's official residence here.

Elegantly dressed in a royal blue baju Melayu, Najib, accompanied by cabinet ministers, came down to greet the public at 11am with a warm welcome.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhiyiddin Yassin and wife Puan Sri Norainee Abdul Rahman both wearing pink traditional attire, joined the line soon after.
Najib's wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, wearing a matching blue baju kurung, their daughter and her fiancee joined him an hour later, before the family moved to the dining area to entertain their guests.

The dignitaries included former ministers, ambassadors and high commissioners, governmental and non-governmental organisation leaders and prominent artistes.

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Seri Pristana whistleblower transfers daughter to vernacular school

The whistleblower parent who exposed how non-Muslim pupils at the SK Seri Pristana had been made to have their recess in a shower room has removed her daughter from the school.

Guneswari Kelly said she is putting her daughter in a vernacular school in Subang, adding she made this decision after her child allegedly was shamed during school assemblies and subjected to constant racial slurs by teachers and schoolmates.

"One of her teachers harassed her by accusing her of bringing shame to the school. She also told my daughter she was not fit to be a pupil of the school," Guneswari told The Malaysian Insider today.

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Jakim gives MCMC nod to go after dog trainer

The country's Islamic authorities have set the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on dog trainer Maznah Yusof, saying action against her online video would be a “lesson to society not to repeat such acts”.

Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director Datuk Othman Mustapha said his department today submitted its investigations paper on Maznah, also known as Chetz Yusof, to the commission and may also call her up for counselling.

“If authorities take action against her (Maznah) it will be seen as a lesson to her specifically and society at large not to repeat such acts,” Othman was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama today.

On Tuesday, a 105-second video reposted on YouTube showed Maznah walking and bathing her three dogs as the “Takbir Raya”, or Muslim call to prayer traditionally reserved for the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, plays in the background.


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Jakim hands report on dog trainer Maznah to MCMC for action

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has sent its report to the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for action to be taken against dog trainer Maznah Yusof (pix) over her Hari Raya video.

Jakim director-general Datuk Othman Mustapha said the department and the state religious authority also planned to call the woman to explain her action and to advise her.
"If action is taken against her, it is to serve as a lesson to her, in particular, and society as a whole, not to do it again," he said in a statement here.

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Mufti: Amend Articles in Constitution to exclude Muslims

The Perak Mufti has called for an amendment to be made to the Federal Constitution, which will exclude Islam from provisions that grant mothers equal rights to raise children according to their religious beliefs.

Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria said that Articles 3, 5 and 11 of the Constitution in relation to religion, liberty and freedom must therefore be amended to exclude Muslims.

“The provision (on child’s religion) should be amended or added to exclude Muslims,” Utusan Malaysia quoted him as saying.

The issue of non-Muslims’ dissatisfaction over such an amendment should not arise in view of the existing pre-Independence social contract, he said.

Harussani said that this was following a recent High Court ruling that granted a plea by M. Indira Gandhi to reverse her estranged Muslim convert husband’s unilateral decision to convert their three children, now aged 16, 15 and five.

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Muslim NGO under fire for beauty pageant defence

Sisters In Islam (SIS), a non-government Muslim organisation comprising mostly women, drew flak from a conservative Muslim columnist today for purportedly putting civil liberties ahead of their religion’s glory.

The women’s group had recently waded into a row over the rights of Muslim women to take part in the Miss Malaysia World 2013 beauty pageant, and raised its concern on the overreach of fatwa (religious edicts) by Islamic officials here beyond the faith’s intent.

In an opinion piece in Malay paper Mingguan Malaysia, columnist Ku Seman Ku Hussain lashed out at the women’s group for what he viewed to be an attempt to undermine and denigrate Islam by one of its own by persistent questioning of the religion’s authorities here on the grounds the edicts were not legislated into civil law.

“It seems for SIS, fundamental rights freedoms are more important than prohibiting Muslims against insulting their own religion,” he said, in the article titled “Apabila Sisters In Islam mempertikai mufti [When Sisters In Islam dispute the mufti]”.

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Mother in Seri Pristana row claims child threatened

Although the authorities have declared the SRK Seri Pristana fiasco “closed”, it appears the fallout over the incident is not yet over.

The mother who triggered an Internet firestorm by posting images of students eating in the bathroom of the school says she is now being threatened for exposing the matter online.

After lodging a police on the anonymous threats pouring in on social network Facebook, Guneswari Kelly said she was now under concerted attack simply for voicing out her opinion on the school’s decision, which has since been deemed inappropriate by authorities.

“How else am I supposed to express my concerns? Can’t they understand this?” she was quoted as saying by news portal The Malaysian Insider.

The threats allegedly made on Facebook included that of bodily harm and the abduction of her child.

“These people did not identify themselves and I am afraid they would do something to my daughter,” Guneswari said in the report.

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After conversion battle, Indira to fight for reunion with daughter

File photo of Indira (left) with her lawyer Kulasegaran. Indira has not seen her youngest daughter Prasana for more than three years now.


With her children’s conversion nightmare almost over, M. Indira Gandhi will soon file contempt proceedings against her estranged husband, banking her hopes yet again on the country’s justice system to reunite with her youngest daughter.

The kindergarten teacher chalked a major win for herself yesterday when the Ipoh High Court finally quashed the conversion certificates of her three children, declaring it unconstitutional to unilaterally force a minor to embrace a different faith.

Indira’s husband, Muslim convert Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, had converted the couple’s three children to Islam four years ago without their mother’s knowledge.

“I am extremely happy that we won. It has been a much-awaited verdict,” she told when contacted yesterday.

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Haul up Utusan over ‘false news’, DAP demands

Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia must be punished for disseminating “false news” that the police planned to use the Sedition Act over the Seri Pristana fiasco, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng demanded today.

According to the Bagan MP, this was a new low even for the newspaper that “openly called for the bloody May 13 racial riots that killed thousands of innocent Malaysians to be celebrated as a holy day.”

“Nothing is beyond Utusan Malaysia,” Lim (picture) said in a statement.

“[The] public had had enough of lies spread by Utusan Malaysia to foment fear and hate amongst Malaysia’s multi-religious society.”

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Prison stint not bad: Alvin Tan

Sex bloggers Alvin Tan Jye Yee and Vivian Lee May Ling leaving the court complex after signing their release papers at the Jalan Duta court complex, Kuala Lumpur.

Sex blogger Alvin Tan, who along with his girlfriend Vivian Lee have been released on bail described his eight-day prison stint as 'not bad'.

Still clad in the red T-shirt and jeans as when he was taken to the Sg Buloh prison on July 18, Tan, 25, who was hounded by the Press at the Jalan Duta court complex where he and Lee, 24, signed their release papers, smilingly told them this, today.

The couple’s counsel Chong Joo Tian during the submissions on the prosecution’s preliminary objection to Tan and Lee’s revision application, had told the court that his clients were put in isolation detention and this was a form of punishment.

Lee whose bail was also posted by Tan’s mother however, did not respond to members of the media and chose to keep her head down and hide her face behind her hair. She served eight days at the Kajang prison.

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12 police reports lodged over Sungai Buloh school controversy

Police have received 12 police reports over the SK Seri Pristana controversy where non-Muslim pupils were shown having their meals in the shower room.

Sungai Buloh police chief Superintendent Junaidi Bujang said 10 reports were from parents and even outsiders, who wanted action taken against the school authorities.

"There were also two reports from the headmaster and a teacher who claimed that they were threatened," said Junaidi, adding that their reports have been classified as criminal intimidation.

Headmaster Mohamad Nasir Mohd Noor, 57, claimed that he had received death threats by people who had called the school office.

Junaidi added that the other staff, a teacher, had lodged a report alleging that the issue had been blown out of proportion and has caused the staff in the school to feel demotivated and lose their focus on teaching.

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