{"id":44,"date":"2011-03-23T11:51:10","date_gmt":"2011-03-23T15:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/?p=44"},"modified":"2011-03-24T12:38:25","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T16:38:25","slug":"kid-with-a-bright-idea-gets-35000-bibles-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/kid-with-a-bright-idea-gets-35000-bibles-released.html","title":{"rendered":"Kid with a bright idea gets Bibles released"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Sudhagaran Stanley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Muslim-dominated government of\u00a0Malaysia has called off a plan to\u00a0stamp serial numbers on Bibles printed in the Malay language following protests by Christians throughout the country.<\/p>\n

About 35,000 Bibles have been in limbo for two years, impounded at two Malaysian ports. Malaysia is an Asian nation of 27 million people\u00a0in the South China Sea next to Indonesia.<\/p>\n

Young Malaysian human rights activist Sudhagaran Stanley had used the internet to organize a mass simultaneous lodging of police reports\u00a0nationwide\u00a0to protest against the government\u2019s planned requirement. The Malaysian home ministry had called for the Bibles to be\u00a0imprinted “For Christians only” along with a serial number so the Bibles could be tracked.<\/p>\n

What followed was a nationwide outcry from Christian leaders — ranging\u00a0from Catholic bishops to evangelical laymen —\u00a0when the news media reported that some of the Bibles\u00a0had already been\u00a0already stamped, saying they were \u201cdefaced.\u201d One leader\u00a0charged that such restrictions only happen under Communist\u00a0regimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0coordinated simultaneous lodging of police reports by Christians throughout Malaysia\u00a0planned for March 23 was called off after the government backed down on the issue. The tactic would have created mountains of paperwork for officials under Malaysian law — and could have resulted in a wide\u00a0spectrum of conflicting\u00a0remedies ordered by local magistrates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sudhagaran Stanley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cThe government has agreed to change their position in the issue and release all the Bibles without the serial number,” said Stanley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On March 22, Idris Jala, Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s office, announced\u00a0the compromise after discussions with Christian leaders over the last few days.<\/p>\n

He said the Bibles will be released with the words \u201cFor Christianity\u201d stamped clearly in font type Arial\/size 16 in bold, but no other words or serial numbers.<\/p>\n

In addition, the government has also assured that future Bibles in Malay can be imported and released\u00a0without delay if they are stamped with the\u00a0words \u201cFor Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Muslim-dominated government of\u00a0Malaysia has called off a plan to\u00a0stamp serial numbers on Bibles printed in the Malay language following protests by Christians throughout the country. About 35,000 Bibles have been in limbo for two years, impounded at two Malaysian ports. Malaysia is an Asian nation of 27 million people\u00a0in the South China Sea next…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nKid with a bright idea gets Bibles released - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/kid-with-a-bright-idea-gets-35000-bibles-released.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kid with a bright idea gets Bibles released - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Muslim-dominated government of\u00a0Malaysia has called off a plan to\u00a0stamp serial numbers on Bibles printed in the Malay language following protests by Christians throughout the country. About 35,000 Bibles have been in limbo for two years, impounded at two Malaysian ports. Malaysia is an Asian nation of 27 million people\u00a0in the South China Sea next…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/kid-with-a-bright-idea-gets-35000-bibles-released.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-23T15:51:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-03-24T16:38:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/files\/2011\/03\/Sudhagaran-Stanley-300x259.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kid with a bright idea gets Bibles released - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/kid-with-a-bright-idea-gets-35000-bibles-released.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kid with a bright idea gets Bibles released - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars","og_description":"The Muslim-dominated government of\u00a0Malaysia has called off a plan to\u00a0stamp serial numbers on Bibles printed in the Malay language following protests by Christians throughout the country. 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