Annou Xavier, the lawyer for Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, maintained the
Sarawak-born Christian’s legal challenge involving compact discs bearing
the word “Allah” differed from case in which the Home Ministry banned
the use of the word in the Catholic Church’s weekly paper Herald as part
of the publication permit.
“The principles in (the Herald) case and the principles in Jill Ireland’s case [are] a little bit different,” Xavier said when contacted by The Malay Mail Online.
“Different because (the Herald) case is about a permit issued
by Home Ministry where the permit says you can’t use the word in the
weekly. In Jill Ireland’s case, it is about her right of education and
her right of worship.
“We will try to distinguish Jill Ireland’s case from the Court of Appeal (ruling),” he said.
Last week, the Court of Appeal’s Justice Datuk Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali
said the home minister had acted well within his powers to disallow the
Herald from using the word “Allah” in its Bahasa Malaysia section, which
caters to the Catholic Church’s Bumiputera Christians.
The court also controversially decided that “Allah” was not integral to the Christian faith and its practice.
“From such finding, we find no reason why the respondent is so adamant
to use the name ‘Allah’ in their weekly publication. Such usage, if
allowed, will inevitably cause confusion within the community,” the
leading judge in a three-man panel had said when reading out from a
summary of the judgment.
When asked how the judges’ finding that “Allah” was not integral to
Christianity would affect Jill Ireland’s case, Xavier merely said that
the judges had “went on a frolic of their own”.
Xavier, who had also represented the Catholic Church in the Herald case, stressed that Jill Ireland’s case will still proceed.
“As far as Jill Ireland case is concerned, we will go on with the case
irrespective of decision of the Court of Appeal,” he said, amid concerns
that the ruling would not bode well for other court cases on the word
“Allah”.
The ruling also casts doubt over how the judiciary will rule on another
similar court case brought by Sidang Injil Borneo (Borneo Evangelical
Church) Sabah, who is suing the Home Ministry for confiscating its
Malay-language Christian education publications, which contain the word
“Allah”, in 2007.
Both the SIB Sabah case and Jill Ireland’s case were put on the
backburner in recent years pending the disposal of the Catholic Church’s
case.
According to Xavier, Jill Ireland’s case will come up in the High Court for mention soon.
Although the High Court granted Jill Ireland leave for judicial review
in May 4, 2009, the hearing for the legal challenge has yet to start.
Xavier confirmed that the court can hear Jill Ireland’s judicial review
without waiting for the Catholic Church’s appeal at the Federal Court to
be disposed of.
“We can still go on if we want to,” he said, but said her legal team will decide when the case comes up for mention.
On May 11, 2008, the Home Ministry confiscated eight CDs from Jill
Ireland at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) airport in Sepang,
prompting the Bumiputera Christian to challenge its decisions in court.
The CDs bore names such as “Cara Hidup Dalam Kerajaan Allah”, “Hidup
Benar Dalam Kerajaan Allah” and “Ibadah Yang Benar Dalam Kerajaan
Allah”.
In August 2008, Jill Ireland filed for judicial review of the Home
Ministry’s actions and a return of the CDs, besides a declaratory relief
saying that she has a legitimate expectation to exercise the right to
use “Allah”and continue to own and import such materials.
In August 2010, Jill Ireland’s lawyers had also filed an application to
cross-examine the then Home Minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, but the
application was dismissed by the High Court on July 12, 2011.
The Melanau Christian then appealed to the Court of Appeal in April 3,
2012 but the appellate court dismissed the appeal on getting Syed Hamid
to appear for cross-examination on May 10 the same year.
These three cases involving Jill Ireland, Sabah SIB and the Herald’s
publisher have cast a spotlight on the rights of religious minorities in
the country, especially Bumiputera Christians.
Christians are the third-largest religious population at 2.6 million,
according to statistics from the 2010 consensus, behind Muslims and
Buddhists.
Bumiputera Christians are said to number around 1.6 million and have
been using the word “Allah” in the national language and their native
tongues for centuries for the practice of their religion.