CASE management for Sidang Injil Borneo Church’s (SIB) appeal regarding documents pertaining to the cabinet’s 1986 decision to prohibit the use of the word “Allah” in non-Muslim publications has been rescheduled to April 30.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan told Bernama that the matter was originally fixed for today before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Jalidah Hamid, but it was vacated.

“We received an email from the court notifying us that case management for SIB’s appeal, which was scheduled for today, has been vacated. The next case management has been fixed for April 30 at the Court of Appeal.”

On October 16, 2017, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed the church’s application, ruling that the documents were classified under the Official Secrets Act and could not be released.

The documents were requested by SIB and its president, Jerry W.A. Dusing @ Jerry W. Pate, in a judicial review application filed on December 10, 2007 against the Home Ministry and government over the right to use the word “Allah” to refer to God in the church’s publications.

The application was also filed to challenge the Customs Department’s seizure of religious books brought in from Surabaya, Indonesia, that contained the word “Allah”, at the low-cost carrier terminal in Sepang on August 15, 2007.

SIB is seeking a declaration that it has the constitutional right to use the word “Allah” in Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia translations of the Bible and other religious materials.

On October 1, 2014, the appellate court gave the nod to the church to initiate a judicial review application over the right to use the word “Allah” in its religious publications after the Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 5 the same year dismissed SIB’s leave application to commence a judicial review.

Following the Court of Appeal decision, the matter was remitted to the high court for a hearing on the merits of the church’s judicial review.

However, the said merits have yet to be heard as SIB applied to obtain the documents first. – Bernama, April 1, 2020.