Interfaith leaders condemn MUI decrees

Interfaith leaders condemn MUI decrees

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Interfaith leaders condemned on Friday the Indonesian Ulema
Council (MUI) for its issuance of fatwas on Thursday that
outlawed liberal Islamic thought and pluralism, while urging
Muslims to resist the orders.

They also slammed the state-sanctioned council for failing to
come up with an edict banning the use of violence against
different religious groups.

Earlier this month a group of Muslim extremists attacked the
compound of the Ahmadiyah congregation -- which does not
recognize that Muhammad was the last prophet -- in Bogor, West
Java.

The attackers justified their violence with the MUI's 1980
fatwa, which declares Ahmadiyah heretical. On Wednesday, the
council reaffirmed the ban on the Islamic sect, and even urged
the government to dismantle the group.

"Instead of issuing fatwas that only marginalize majority
groups, why didn't the MUI issue one banning the use of violence
against groups with different religious beliefs?" said a joint
statement issued by the interfaith leaders grouped in the
Civilized People's Alliance for Freedom of Religion and Belief.

The alliance includes former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur"
Wahid, and Muslim scholars Dawam Rahardjo and M. Syafii Anwar
from the International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP),
Djohan Effendi, and Liberal Islam Network (JIL) leader Ulil
Abshar Abdalla.

Among other members of the alliance are priest Anand Krisna,
and several other non-Muslim leaders representing the Catholic,
Buddhist, Christian and Konghucu communities.

Most of the interfaith leaders attended a news conference held
at the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) headquarters in Central Jakarta in
reaction to the MUI's edicts against Ahmadiyah and progressive
Islamic thought.

"With such heretical commands banning people from doing this
and that in their religious relationships, I think we should call
for the dissolution of the MUI," Dawam Rahardjo told the media
conference also attended by Ahmadiyah figures.

"We have to resist the decrees by backing Pak Dawam's appeal
(for the government) to dissolve the MUI," Gus Dur added.

He said the MUI's ban on pluralism was irrational since it was
an undeniable aspect of Indonesia.

"We must stand against any kind of coercion that will only
limit our own beliefs," Gus Dur added.

Citing the 1945 Constitution that gives all Indonesians the
basic right of religious freedom, the interfaith leaders asked
the state to protect the people in professing their own beliefs.

The MUI ended its four-day national congress on Friday after
issuing 11 edicts, one of which states that Islamic
interpretations based on liberalism, secularism and pluralism
"contradict Islamic teachings".

In his speech to mark the closing of the congress, Vice
President Jusuf Kalla called on the mullahs to set examples of
the implementation of the peaceful values of Islam.

Reiterating his condemnation of the attack on Ahmadiyah, Kalla
said all Muslims must also respect differences in religions and
beliefs.

"It is for the sake of peace, which is taught in the Koran,"
he said.