Freedom of religion in Malaysia is a delicate matter – that is no secret. And with the marriage of religion and politics, along with “human rights-ism”, this freedom is slowly eroding.
In June, the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) and the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) refused to obey the Selangor state government’s order to return the Malay language Bibles that had earlier been seized from the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM). The Mais chairman even decided that there was a legal case against BSM, contradicting the Attorney-General’s statement that there was none as the seized Bibles did not involve issues of national security.
So you have religious authorities vehemently disobeying and contradicting the state executive and the top federal legal advisor. This was only the latest of many instances over the years where legal, political and religious authorities have clashed over religious issues.
