Quran imports: Consignee threatens agitation

Bhuj: Even as the customs department at Mundra has held a container that landed at the new Mundra port from Dubai a fortnight ago, the consignee has threatened agitation in a peaceful manner. An agitated Abdul Kaiyume Haydar, the consignee, said, "We cannot wait any longer. We would knock the doors of the court as well as go forward with a peaceful agitation the Gandhian way." Haydar, who is an Emam and Mutvill at Jama Masjid at Gorevali said that despite his numerous meetings with Mundra customs, nothing has worked out.
"I have met various heads of the agencies here which informed that they had already sent their reports to the customs and the matter now rested with them. However, they deny of having received any such reports from any agency. Hayder said that it is the work of people who are anti-Islam, who have been spreading rumors about the imports. The container contains 158 cartons with 3,000 copies of holy Quran and two religious books in Arabic, and some undeclared used electronic goods. "Importing Quran is not illegal. We however want an interpreter to through all the old books for which we have requested several state agencies including the district collector. Based on primary investigations, it is found that the two books talk about the Afghan- Russia war. Releasing undeclared miscellaneous items with a penalty would not be an issue but before handing over these items to Banni-based consignee in Gorevali, we want clearance from various central and state agencies, mainly from the State Intelligence which is against the delivery," Ashok Nagada, assistant customs commissioner at Mundra told DNA on Monday. Interestingly, the container had come into suspicion mainly after port authorities received a letter from ND Solanki, superintendent of police of Western Railway which said of receiving a chit along with the timer bomb that was found at Anand railway station. The chit had a mention of the delay in delivery of Qurans. Nagada also said that he did not have much objection of the delivery but they cannot do so before they get a green signal from the agencies.
He also said that the Qurans were imported as they were printed on a better quality paper and was in original Arabic. "One cannot get such copies here. Also, they were donated to my cleric father for free distribution in Banni where there are about 126 mosques," said Hayder.
He also added that his father had been a frequent visitor to Dubai in the past 15 to 20 years and has visited several countries including America where he was sent as part official delegation by the union government a few years ago.

Malaysia ban on 'Allah' upheld

The Catholic church in Malaysia has failed in a bid to suspend a government ban on the use of the word "Allah" in its weekly newsletter after the court rejected its application.
The high court ruling on Thursday effectively upheld the federal government's 2007 ban, which has become a symbol of religious tensions in the country.
The government directive bars non-Muslims from translating God as "Allah" in their literature, saying it would confuse Muslims in this plural, Muslim-majority country.
The Herald, which reports on Catholic community news in English, Malay, Tamil and Mandarin, tried to get the order suspended while waiting for a court decision on the ban's legality.
The court will hear the newspaper's original bid to review the administrative order on July 7. Lawrence Andrew, a Catholic priest and the editor of The Herald, told Al Jazeera they had asked to suspend the ministerial directive until the court rules on whether the ban is legal.
"Since the status quo remains we will not use the word "Allah" in our publication. In fact we have not been using it since our January edition." The government had previously warned The Herald, which has a circulation of 12,000 limited to Catholics, that its permit could be revoked if it continued to use the word "Allah" for God in its Malay-language section. The section is read mostly by indigenous tribes across the country who converted to Christianity decades ago.
In 2007, the government issued a warning over The Herald's use of the word "Allah", which officials had said could only be used to refer to the Muslim God.
Christian groups say the ban is unconstitutional, arguing that the word "Allah" predates Islam.
Print publications in Malaysia require a permit which is renewed every year, and is subject to conditions set by the government. In multi-racial Malaysia, the government considers religion a sensitive matter and often classify related matters as a security issue.
S Selvarajah, a lawyer for The Herald, told Al Jazeera the court said about 10 Malaysian states had similar prohibitions on non-Muslims' use of the word "Allah".
He said the judge explained that suspending the ban "would tantamount to the court aiding the infringement of those provisions". "But it [the ruling] has no real prejudice as such because The Herald, in compliance with the ban, had stopped using the word since January," he said.
"We'll wait for July when the court will hear the parties and decide on the matter once and for all." About 60 per cent of the country's 27 million people are Muslim Malays, with one-third of them ethnic Chinese and Indians, and many who are Christians. The minorities have often said their constitutional right to practice their religion freely has come under threat from the Malay Muslim-dominated government. The government has repeatedly denied any discrimination against the country's ethnic minorities.