PUTRAJAYA – The Home Ministry will present the results of engagements with stakeholders regarding the issue of regulating publications containing the word “Allah” to the Conference of Rulers at the end of this month, said Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
The home minister said input and views obtained from the five engagement sessions involving relevant parties would shape the new administrative directive on the use of the word Allah, and it needed to be presented to the Conference of Rulers as the highest religious authority in the country.
The engagement sessions involved Islamic scholars and teachers, academicians, sociologists and public safety experts, activists in the field of civil and shariah law, Malaysian shariah management bodies, and the religious harmony management bodies.
“We have to present it to the conference and any input received, like additional views and so on, will be brought back to the ministry to be examined. It will be a guide for us to draft a new administrative directive,” he told the media after attending the ministry’s engagement session with religious harmony management bodies here, today.
Also present were National Unity Minister Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Mohd Na’im Mokhtar.
He said the engagement sessions were held following the high court’s decision on March 10, 2021, which allowed a judicial review application by a Christian woman, Jill Ireland, who sought a declaration of her constitutional right regarding the use of the word Allah in publications related to her religion.
“The agenda (involvement) is to help create a new administrative directive following the high court’s decision in the Jill Ireland case, which rendered the previous administrative directive no longer applicable,” he said.
According to Saifuddin Nasution, in today’s engagement session, the participants voiced that the government should work to resolve the issue related to the use of the word “once and for all” to prevent any elements causing unease or discomfort among the multi-religious community in Malaysia.
On June 5, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah expressed deep concerns over the issue of the use of the word Allah which he feared would become a prolonged polemic and could affect national unity and the well-being of the country if not resolved immediately.
Al-Sultan Abdullah decreed that the government should harmonise the situation and at the same time, place the use of the word Allah in the right context by taking into account the national security, the benefit of the ummah as well as the position of His Majesty and other Malay rulers as heads of the Islam in the country. – October 9, 2023