AN interfaith council has waded into the Bible-translation issue questioning if the holy books of other faiths will be targeted next, as the word “Allah” is also mentioned in the Sikh holy book.

Commenting on the suggestion by the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) to get Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) to translate Bibles into Bahasa Malaysia to correct the allegedly erroneous use of the word “Allah”, the interfaith council described it as “not logical”.

Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) president R.S. Mohan said if DBP is allowed to translate the Bible, holy books of other faiths may suffer the same fate.

“It is not a right thing to do to take the Bible and make changes. Now they might start with the Bible and next might go after the Hindu or Sikh holy books,” he said.

“How can DBP translate the books when we don’t even know who the translators are?

“Not everyone can simply do the translation as they will not be well versed on the scriptures in the Bible,” Mohan told The Malaysian Insight.

The issue of translating the Bible came about after Mais lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla made the suggestion at the hearing of the suit brought by Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill against the home minister and government to uphold her constitutional right to use the word “Allah” in Christian publications.

Haniff said the Christians in Sabah and Sarawak have wrongly used “Allah” to mean God in Bahasa Malaysia, arguing that they should instead use “Tuhan” and that this would not deprive them of their rights.

Haniff had also told the High Court that the government was interested in allowing the publication of a Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible.

He had said DBP would prepare the translation, to be approved by the Christian community, for the Bahasa Malaysia Bible, if the government approved the publication.

Mohan said the word “Allah” is also mentioned in the Sikh holy book and questioned how DBP would translate the original text if it came to it.

“The word ‘Allah’ was mentioned many times in their scriptures. So how are they going to translate the original scriptures to Tuhan?

“The Hindu also have a song that mentioned the word ‘Allah’. It is not logical for DBP to translate religious scriptures. It should be done by their own religious bodies.”

Bible Society of Malaysia vice-president Eugene Yapp said DBP looks after Bahasa Malaysia as a language, but it is not an institution that is mandated to look into religious scriptures.

“They have been given the authority to deal with Bahasa Malaysia in ordinary literature.

“They have not been given the responsibility to look into the scriptures of people from other faiths and certainly not the Christian faith,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

He also took a swipe at Mais, saying it does not have the authority to look into this area (translating the Bible).

“The question that now arises is this: Do they intend to amend the law to allow DBP to do the translation?

“Each religious group has the right to determine its own expression of theological understanding.

“They have a right to determine their own religious doctrine and how they want to express those understandings,” he said, adding that this right is enshrined in the federal constitution.

Yapp also said if there are errors in the Bible (Malay version) it should be corrected, but added that the change must be done by the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) and not DBP.

Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) general-secretary Rev Dr Hermen Shastri was more direct when he said it is the sovereign right of religious authorities to translate their own scriptures.

“That right does not extend to others who are non-believers. This is recognised as a universal right respected by all nations in the world.

“They are the body that all these years has been responsible for the translation of scripture languages.

“If there is a translation error it should be done by BSM, a body that is constituted by the Christian community to look into matters such as this,” Hermen said. 

Churches in Sabah and politicians in Sarawak have also come out to express their dissatisfaction over the matter.

Sabah Council of Churches president Bishop Melter Jiki Tais found Haniff’s statement “very insulting” to Christians.

Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister James Masing asked if Mais or DBP understood the essence of Christianity.

“I have a PhD. I have many books on Islam and I have read all of them. Does that make me qualified to write what Islam should be? But more importantly, would they agree? Would they allow it?” – November 17, 2017.