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KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad came to Datuk Ibrahim Alis defence today, claiming the Malay rights leader had not meant it as an insult when he suggested burning Malay language bibles for using the word Allah.

Dr Mahathir (pic), who is the patron of Ibrahims Malay rights group Perkasa, told a press conference here that the Pasir Mas MP had merely been referring to a common practice of burning publications that have been identified as illegal.

Usually, if there is a publication that has been banned, the action taken is to burn these books.

So his (Ibrahim) view is that if this Bible is illegal in terms of policy, he chose to opt for the common method of burning them, he said after launching the coffee table book Antartica: Malaysias Journey to the Ice at Universiti Malaya here.

So I dont think that he (Ibrahim) had any intention to insult the kitab injil... it was not his intention.

Last week, The Malaysian Insider reported Dr Mahathir as saying that while Ibrahim supports Umno, the fiery leader does not speak for the party.

It is unfortunate that Ibrahim Ali should suggest burning the newly-printed bibles. That may be the way we rid ourselves of unwanted publications. It cannot be done for the Bible any more than it can be done for the Quran, Dr Mahathir had written in his chedet.cc blog posting.

But what Ibrahim said does not reflect the views of Umno. Unfortunately, some politicians would like to make it so in order to gain political mileage, the former prime minister added.

Dr Mahathir, who still wields much clout within Umno, was quick to stress that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalitions lynchpin party believed Allah to be exclusive to Islam but it had never advocated burning the Malay-language bibles which uses this word.

The countrys longest-serving prime minister of 22 years had also given a reminder that the Allah controversy had been settled years ago through the acceptance that the Christians of Sabah and Sarawak could continue to use the word Allah in their Malay-language bible and teachings but these should not be used in the rest of the country.

Read this article:
Dr M Defends Ibrahim Ali, Says No Malice In His Bible-Burning Threat