LAWS CONTROLLING PROPAGATION AMONG MUSLIMS
In addition to wrangling over the issues of sharia criminal law punishment and apostasy, liberal rights activists and conservative Muslim forces often collide over the restriction on non-Muslims propagating religion among Muslims.
Federal and state laws restrict the propagation of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Ahmadiyyah, Shi’i Islam, and other religions and creeds considered “non-Islamic religions” or “deviant” sects. Federal laws, such as the Sedition Act 1948 (Act 15; rev. 1969), the Printing Press and Publications Act of 1984 (Act 301), the Societies Act (Act 335), the Internal Security Act of 1960 (Act 82), the Police Act of 1967 (Act 334; rev. 1988), and the Penal Code, can be used to restrict the propagation of religions to Muslims (Zuliza et al. 2013). The states of Kelantan, Melaka, Selangor, Johor, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, and Terengganu have passed enactments to control and restrict the propagation of non-Islamic religion. Terengganu was the first to do so in 1980, followed by Kelantan in 1981; Johor was the last to do so, in 1991. These state enactments consist of provisions prohibiting the proselytization of other religions to Muslims and the use of several words and phrases seen as uniquely Islamic. Malay government officials and religious leaders view these enactments as consistent with constitutional articles on state-level sharia jurisdiction, religious freedom, and the prohibition of the grave offense of apostasy in sharia law (Zuliza et al. 2013). However, the states of Penang, Sabah, and Sarawak do not have any enactments controlling the propagation of non-Islamic religions. Christian leaders and liberal rights activists argue that these state enactments are too broad and run counter to rights of religious freedom for Malaysia’s large non-Muslim communities enshrined in the country’s supreme law, the Federal Constitution. In fact, the Christian Federation of Malaysia asked prime minister Najib Razak for a public commitment to repeal these enactments in BN-controlled states (Malay Mail Online 2014b).The Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation among Muslims) Enactment of 1988 includes six offenses: persuading, influencing, or inciting a Muslim to change faith; subjecting a minor who is a Muslim to influences of a non-Islamic religion; approaching a Muslim to subject him to any speech on or display of any matter concerning a non-Islamic religion; sending or delivering publications concerning any non-Islamic religion to a Muslim; distributing in a public place publications concerning non-Islamic religion to Muslims; and using certain words and expressions of Islamic origin. The punishment for the offenses of inciting a Muslim to change faith and subjecting a Muslim minor to non-Muslim religious influence is the strictest, a prison term of up to one year and/or a fine up to RM 10,000; whereas punishment for the other offenses are lower, ranging from no prison term to six months, and from RM 1,000 to RM 5,000 in fines. Cases relating to the offense of exposing a Muslim minor to non-Islamic influence often arise when custody is given to a non-Muslim parent, but they are difficult to prosecute because children are easily influenced by close relatives (Zuliza et al. 2013). Cases relating to the offense of distributing non-Islamic publications to Muslims can involve the confiscation of Malay-language Bibles. Juliana Nicholas, a Christian missionary from the Philippines, had most of the Bibles he brought into the Kuala Lumpur International Airport confiscated, but he was later able to reclaim them on the grounds that they were for use in his church (ibid. 15). The section pertaining to the offense of using certain words and expressions of Islamic origin relates to cases such as the Herald’s use of the word Allah in its Catholic weekly paper. There are two schedules at the end of this enactment that list twenty-five words and ten phrases prohibited from use in reference to non-Islamic religion.21
In 2011 great drama surrounded a raid of a Christian church dinner by Selangor religious authorities who had heard that Muslims were in attendance. On August 3, 2011, Selangor Department of Islamic Religion officials and police disrupted a dinner organized by the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC), collected information, and found twelve Muslims present.
The dinner was reportedly meant to express gratitude for the efforts of a community-based benevolent association that aids women, children, victims of HIV/AIDS, and natural disasters. Subsequently, reports and responses to this event appeared in various media and on the streets. The youth wing of PAS and twenty-two nongovernmental organizations made public statements expressing their commitment to defend the faith of Muslims and revived calls for a law banning apostasy (Jakarta Globe 2011). Mohd. Ezam Mohd. Nor, a BN senator, declared an “all-out war” against those that attacked the Islamic faith, and Gerakan Cegah Murtad, a new coalition of twenty-five apparently UMNO-affiliated and Malay rights organizations, expressed support for the JAIS action and announced that they would be doing their own monitoring of churches to prevent proselytizing of Muslims. Pertubuhan Perkasa Malaysia organized a rally at the Shah Alam Stadium calling on people to fight Christianization (Malaysian Digest 2011).On the other hand, Daniel Ho, senior pastor of DUMC, issued a statement expressing disappointment at the religious officers’ actions that subjected their dinner guests to “undue harassment” (Christian Post 2011). Bishop Ng Moon Hing, chairman of the Christian Federation of Malaysia, complained about an increase in incidences of Christians being targeted with “unjustified accusations and prejudice” and questioned the legality of the raid. Moreover, Dr. Ng Kam Weng, research director at the Kairos Research Centre, argued that “the powers granted by the state enactments ‘cannot be taken as license’ for Muslim religious authorities to intrude or trespass onto the premises of a church.” The Islamic Renaissance Front, a liberal Muslim group, called on Muslims “not to blame others but to examine the root causes of apostasy and to consider their own shortcomings” (ibid.). With the Selangor state government under control of the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat, this incident placed the Selangor chief minister Khalid Ibrahim, hailing from PKR, and his coalition partners in a quandary.
They had gained control of the state in 2008 campaigning as a tolerant, multiethnic, multireligious alternative to the racialized politics of UMNO. This church raid, executed under their state administration, smacked of religious intolerance to many non-Muslims. PAS leaders’ initial questioning of the grounds and legality of the raid quickly gave way to deafening calls to defend Islam from Christianization and to pass an apostasy bill.However, the head of religion in Selangor is the sultan, not the chief minister. The sultan of Selangor, Sharafuddin Idris Shah, issued a ruling that neither the Christians nor state religious officials would be prosecuted. He stated that the Selangor Department of Islamic Religion authorities were acting within the powers granted them by the Selangor criminal law enactments, including the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation among Muslims) Enactment of 1988. In his ruling the sultan noted that, according to the JAIS investigation, there were attempts made to “subvert the faith and belief of Muslims,” but there was insufficient evidence to take legal action against the alleged Christian perpetrators. He called for all actions aimed at propagating other religions to Muslims to “cease immediately,” and commanded JAIS to “provide counseling to the 12 Muslims present at the dinner in order to restore their faith and belief in Islam” (ibid.).