Bibles of any language still a Bible, Perkasa told

Human rights lawyer Siti Zabedah Kasim has rubbished Perkasa's series of police reports against her for allegedly slandering Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali over his bible-burning remarks.

"It doesn't matter if it is a Malay Bible, an English Bible, a Kadazan Bible or a Tamil Bible, the issue is he incited the burning of bibles," she told Malaysiakini when contacted today.

She was responding to Negeri Sembilan Perkasa chief Mohd Noor Nordin who was quoted in Utusan Malaysia today saying that the human rights lawyer had distorted Ibrahim's (right) statement.

"The truth is, our Perkasa president only said that Malay language bibles that use the word 'Allah' or is in Jawi should be burnt, he did not instruct all bibles to be burnt as a whole," said Mohd Noor in the Utusan report.

Perkasa yesterday lodged counter reports nationwide - in Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan, Kelantan, Penang, Selangor and Perak - against Siti Zabedah as a tit-for-tat after she lodged a police report on Jan 23 against Ibrahim Ali on the matter.

'Act of intimidation'

Siti Zabedah (right) described the barrage of counter reports as an act of intimidation.

"I don't know the exact reason why they are doing this, but maybe they want to intimidate others from lodging more police reports against them," she said.

She also pointed out that she was only representing the 12 people who had collectively lodged the police report against Ibrahim, yet Perkasa is targeting her in particular.

"They (Perkasa) can file as many police reports as they want. I leave it to the police to investigate," she said.

DAP chairperson Karpal Singh also lodged a similar police report on Jan 22 but has so far not receive any retaliation from Perkasa.

He had lodged the police report after attorney-general Gani Patail said Ibrahim would not be prosecuted unless the burning of bibles actually takes place.

Police have since recorded Ibrahim’s statement on Jan 24, and the Pasir Mas MP has defended his remark claiming that he did not intend to offend Christians.

Perkasa is one of many groups that have opposed non-Muslims' use of the term 'Allah' in the Malay translation of the bible, even though the Kuala Lumpur High Court in 2010 ruled in the latter's favour.

The government has since appealed the court's decision and the appeal is still pending, three years on.