The Christian Federation of Malaysia’s statement came after a Malaysian Christian complained that custom officials at an airport in Kuala Lumpur took 32 English Bibles from her on her return from Manila, the Philippines.
Federation chairman Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing stressed the incident, which happened on January 28, was not an isolated case. "We have received many complaints from Christians being told to hand over religious books to custom officers at various checkpoints in the country," he said in published remarks. "Now they even want our Bibles."
The woman was reportedly told that all religious materials have to be sent to the Internal Security Ministry’s publications control unit for clearance. The General Secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, Rev. Hermen Shastri, told reporters he had never before heard of anyone being told to do this when bringing English-language Bibles into the country.
NO RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE?
Customs department spokesman Iskandar Jaafar denied the Bibles were confiscated because of religious intolerance. “It’s the normal procedure” to check if so many books were being imported for commercial purposes, Jaafar reportedly said.
Malaysian law forbids proselytizing by non-Muslims, although Muslims are allowed to encourage people to convert to Islam. Shastri said the woman was bringing the books to give to Bible study groups, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reported. He did not explain why she had to bring the books in from abroad.
The latest incident came after Malaysian officials recently seized Christian children’s books from stores – although they were apparently later returned – and banned the word "Allah" from Malay-language Bibles and other Christian publications.
Religious issues are extremely sensitive in Malaysia, where ethnic Malay Muslims make up about 60 percent of the 27 million people. However church and rights groups have often argued that the Constitution guarantees freedom of worship for minorities, who include Christians as well as Buddhists and Hindus.
