7. Court orders 'Allah' CDs returned to woman

Court orders 'Allah' CDs returned to woman

http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=90483

Published on: Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Kuala Lumpur: A Christian woman from Sarawak Monday got back her eight compact discs (CDs) on Christianity which contain the word "Allah" that were confiscated by the Home Ministry six years ago.

Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill was allowed to have possession of all the CDs when High Court judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof allowed her application for a judicial review of the ministry's action.
In the application, Bill had applied for a mandamus order against the then (2008) Home Minister to return the CDs that were confiscated from her.
Zaleha also allowed Bill's application to revoke the decision of the Home Ministry in confiscating the CDs from her.
She ruled the order from the Home Minister to seize the CDs as ultra virus.
The CDs were seized from Bill on May 11, 2008 at the old low-cost carrier terminal in Sepang.
Justice Zaleha only allowed for two of the 11 demands in Jill Ireland's judicial review, and ordered the ministry to pay her RM5,000 in costs.
In her judgement, Justice Zaleha said it was clear a senior authorised officer could only seize materials pending a decision of the minister, although there was no provision for the minister to delegate power to a subordinate.
She found that in this case, the decision was made by Customs Superintendent Suzanah Muin (the officer who allegedly seized the CDs from Jill Ireland) but not by then-Home Minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar himself.
"I agree that the order was obtained ultra vires and that the respondent is guilty of error of law," said Justice Zaleha.
Jill Ireland, 33, had on May 4, 2009 obtained leave from the court to challenge the Home Minister's decision to seize her eight CDs that contained the word "Allah".
On May 11, 2008, the ministry seized the CDs under Section 9 (1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 when Jill disembarked at the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal in Sepang.
The CDs, containing titles including Cara Menggunakan Kunci Kerajaan Allah, Cara Hidup Dalam Kerajaan Allah and Ibadah Yang Benar Dalam Kerajaan Allah, were brought from Indonesia.
Senior federal counsel Munahyza Mustafa and Ardi Razalijaya A.Radi appeared for the respondents, while Bill was represented by lawyer Lim Heng Seng.

6. Cut up "ALLAH"????

My dear  friends who love God or Allah as some claim the same,

Again I want to keep this article very short as this story can stretch into thousands of pages.

Who is God ? Who is Allah?  Is God=Allah?   Is Allah a religion?  If not a religion, it is not sensitive item although it is a “banned” word for non Muslims.

If God is not Allah, then why some people use both terms as interchangeable?

For the Christian God there is no such an exclusive God as God is for all, if an exclusive God, then something is definitely wrong.  But everyone must know God.

Now some people want to claim Allah as exclusive to them.

If we want to avoid any confusion on this term Allah, let the users specify which God or Allah they refer to.  But there maybe an Islamic God or Islamic Allah but there is no such thing as the Christians’ God as Christians only call their God – Trinity God.

This dispute is not new but had been there for centuries but Malaysians have brought the dispute on Allah to the civil Court because of the word is sort of banned.

When it goes to the Courts, it has become a Constitutional issue embracing human rights and to some religious rights.  Federal Constitution overwrites all other enactments by the States.

The two rounds of civil court have not found the answer as to who is wrong or who is right.  So it is proceeding to the highest Court for a solution, and I wonder if it is ever to reach the decision of the Federal Court going by the fire burning on the ground.

It is indeed a dilemma for the top justices to make any decision because there is no precedent as no one has ever brought the case to the civil courts in the world.

To avoid emotion to get better of many people, we need to find the solution soon.

My proposed solution would be based on the great wisdom of King Solomon in biblical time when two women want to claim on the living child.  This case is indeed famous and solution was found very quickly. 1 King 3.16-24.

Although the ALLAH case may not be the same as the one handled by Solomon, it is worthwhile to consider this case in similar vein.   In Solomon’s case, there were two children – one dead and one living from a common bed both women shared.  In multi racial and multi religious Malaysia, we all share common heritage and community.

In the Allah case, everyone believes that there is only ONE God but some want to raise red flag to claim there are more one versions which is not really true.

To avoid the complexity and complicity  of the term, maybe we need to ask the people if they want to cut into halves the ALLAH?  Isn’t it very frightening indeed to cut up God or Allah?  How would we cut up the Almighty spiritual being or we cut up the word “ALLAH”?  Never.

I hope to solve this crisis when I become the Prime Minister of the Interim Good Governance Government (IGGG) of Malaysia.

In the meantime, it is very good enough to let God be God and keep the peace in Malaysia.

 

Joshua Y. C. Kong