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.