“I ask that the demands made are reasonable... because if they are unreasonable, we will not solve this, whatever we do,” he told reporters today.
Talks between the Home Ministry and Christians would be more fruitful if both sides refrained from complicating the issue with emotions, Hishammuddin said.
“If it hadn’t been complicated by other considerations, we would have seen progress,” he said, adding that he would not comment further as his ministry was still in discussion with a Christian group, believed to be the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM).
Christian leaders have said they were appalled by the Home Ministry’s decision to stamp the seized bibles with its seal without consent from the importers, saying this “defaced” the holy books.
CFM, which represents 90 per cent of churches nationwide, has advised its members not to retrieve the ministry-endorsed consignment.
The federation has also insisted that Putrajaya immediately drop the conditions imposed for the release of two shipments of bibles totalling 35,000 copies seized from Port Klang and Kuching port.
The ministry had set two conditions to the importers of the consignments to allow the release of the books — that each book is stamped with a serial number and a ministry disclaimer that says “For Christians only”.
The 35,000 Alkitab Bibles are presently still held by the Home Ministry in the two ports as Christian leaders have refused to collect them due to the conditions imposed on their release.
The government’s move to release of the bibles have, however, sparked fresh concerns of reigniting Malay-Muslim anger and fears over non-Muslim use of the word “Allah”, which reached a critical point last year with arson and vandal attacks on several houses of worship.
The Christian and Muslim religious communities have been engaged in a tug of war over the word “Allah”, with the latter group arguing that its use should be exclusive to them on the grounds as Islam is monotheistic and the word “Allah” denotes the Muslim God.
Christians, however, have argued that “Allah” is an Arabic word that has been used by those of other religious beliefs, including the Jews, in reference to God in many other parts of the world, notably in Arab nations and Indonesia.
The tussle is still trapped in the courts after the ministry won a stay of the 2009 High Court ruling that allowed Catholic weekly The Herald to use “Allah” in its Bahasa Malaysia edition.
