Cleric held for leading prayers in Indonesian

Hera Diani and I.D. Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Malang

Despite a dissenting opinion on Islamic rituals, certain Muslim clerics have questioned the police's decision to detain an Islamic school leader in Malang, East Java, for leading daily prayers in both Arabic and Indonesian, a practice libeled as despoiling organized religion.

Ahmad Syafii Maarif, who chairs Muhammadiyah -- the country's second largest Muslim organization, said that while Muhammad Yusman Roy might have done something wrong, he did not commit a crime.

"He should have just been told about the mistake he was making, but not arrested," Syafii told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Ali Maschan Moesa, the East Java branch chairman of the country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said that police had gone too far in detaining Yusman. Yusman was arrested for violating Article 156 (a) of the Criminal Code on despoiling an organized religion, a crime that carries a maximum punishment of five years in jail.

"There are better approaches by sitting down together and discussing his (Yusman's) wrongdoing. The use of criminal law is unacceptable," Ali said in Malang.

Arrested on Saturday, Yusman was formally put in the custody of Malang Police as of Sunday.

Malang police detective chief Adj. Comr. Fadly Widianto refused to comment and also forbade his subordinates from talking to the media regarding the case.

Yusman, a former boxer and convert from Christianity, made news because of the way he performed prayers when at his Islamic boarding school Pondok I'tikaf Jama'ah Ngaji Lelaku in Malang, 80 kilometers south of the East Java capital of Surabaya. After reading out an Arabic verse from the Koran, he would follow this with an Indonesian translation.

Regardless of their proficiency in Arabic, Muslims worldwide use the language when performing prayers in which verses from the Koran are ritually recited. Local languages are used in personal prayers or faith reading.

Yusman said he provided the translation so that worshipers, most of whom do not speak Arabic, were able to understand what they were hearing.

In response to the practice, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued an edict early last week prohibiting the recital of prayers in languages other than Arabic.

In the past, local languages were used in prayers among Muslims, although this was often to lure people to convert to Islam.

Ulil Abshar Abdalla of the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) said that back in the second century people were allowed to use local Arabic dialect or Persian in their shalat prayers.

"However, these historical facts have never been revealed here. People should know that there is a difference of opinion on the matter," Ulil said in a book discussion recently.

Mainstream Muslim clerics here, however, insist on using Arabic to perform prayers, using the reason that they wish to avoid subtle changes of meaning.

"In the long run, (reciting prayers in non Arabic languages) will disrupt religious order and authenticity," Syafii told the Post.

He added that people in Turkey were once allowed to perform prayers in local dialects, "but did not work."

Said Agil Siradj of NU said that there were several matters in the Koran that were non-negotiable, including, he says, the rituals involved in shalat prayers.

"Non-negotiable matters account for only 5 percent of the Koran's content. The point is to keep the authenticity of Islam," he was quoted as saying by Antara.