The Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) has urged Christians to remain calm following the raid on its headquarters and arrest of its president and its office manager.
 
In a press release late this evening, BSM also urged Christians to pray for the authorities to do their utmost to preserve peace.
 
"BSM calls upon the Christian community to remain calm and to display their best Christian character and virtues of love and forgiveness in this situation," said BSM.
 
The group also expressed shocked that the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) had chosen to exercise their powers against non-Muslims.
 
"BSM is of the view that this action contravenes a host of legal provisions including that of the Federal Constitution. This is a sad day heralding the erosion of minority rights," the group added.
 
The group said that the raid and arrests were considered a "serious infraction" of the federal government's 10-point solution that was unveiled in March 2011. 
 
This deal - unveiled during the middle of the Sarawak state election campaign - had allowed for Christians in Sabah and Sarawak to continue referring to God as "Allah" and allow the circulation of Bibles in the Malay language in those states.
 
"BSM calls upon the government to uphold its part of the agreement and resolve this delicate issue of the BM Bible with Jais," said the group.
 
Earlier today, Jais raided BSM's office in Petaling Jaya and seized 320 copies of the Bible in the Malay language and 10 copies of Bab Kudus (Iban Bible).
 
Jais also arrested BSM president Lee Min Choon and its office manager Sinclair Wong. They were released after spending 90 minutes at the Damansara police station.
 
The police had also ordered the duo to report to the Jais office on Jan 10 to assist investigations.
 
They were arrested under the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988, which prohibits non-Muslims from using the word ‘Allah’.