In allowing the judicial review application challenging the Home Ministry decision to ban it, judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof ruled the respondents failed to show its publication is prejudicial to public order.
"If it is true that the book(Bahasa Malaysia version) is prejudicial to public order, why was no action taken to ban its English version when it was first circulated?
"Why was the prohibition made only when it was translated into the national language (BM)?," she said rhetorically.
She said the root of the respondents' concern was religious confusion of Muslims in the country that might be caused by the book.
"As the authorities only decided to ban the book when it was translated into the national language, does it mean that only the Malay-speaking readers would be confused while English ones would not?
"It must be emphasised that the ban has been in circulation for about two weeks before it (BM version book) was banned while the English version has been circulated in the local market since June 2011," she said.
Zaleha added that any decision by the Home Minister to ban a book is not above challenge.
"The law gives discretion to the Minister but it does not mean it (Minister's decision) cannot be questioned.
"Every legal power must have limits, otherwise we will have dictatorship," she said.
After proceedings, counsel Nizam Bashir, who acted for the applicant, said the Malay version of liberal Canadian Muslim author Irshad Manji's is now free to be circulated in the local market.
Senior federal counsel Noor Hisham Ismail, acting for the respondents, said he will seek further instruction from the Attorney-General's Chambers on whether to lodge an appeal against today's decision.
In early May last year, the Federal Territory Religious Department (Jawi) raided several bookshops here to confiscate Manji's book, which had been banned under the Syariah law.
The Home Ministry then banned the publication and sale of the book under Section 7 (1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, claiming its circulation was prejudicial to public order.
Later in the same month, 20 officers from the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department(Jais) raided a ZI's office in Merchant Square, Petaling Jaya, and confiscated 180 copies of the book.
ZI filed the judicial review application on July 9, 2012, naming the Deputy Home Minister, the Home Minister and the Federal Government as respondents.
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