MUI: LGBT Degrades Human Dignity, Urges DPR to Enact Criminalisation Law

The Chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), KH Anwar Iskandar, has firmly voiced his rejection of all forms of LGBT practices in the country, stating that they degrade human dignity and threaten national resilience. “This degrades human dignity. We are grateful that the government has issued a Presidential Regulation ensuring that LGBT is part of the threat to national resilience; we must appreciate that,” he said during the 8th Indonesian Muslim Congress (KUII) in Jakarta on Friday, 24 July 2026. Anwar expressed high hopes that the House of Representatives (DPR) will promptly follow up by formulating a law that legally prohibits LGBT practices. He stressed that this is a form of deep concern from the ulama to prevent the Indonesian nation from incurring God’s wrath, similar to what befell the people of Prophet Lut in the past.

Echoing this sentiment, MUI Deputy Chairman Muhammad Cholil Nafis revealed that the council is currently finalising the legal basis for the prohibition. He stated that an academic paper and a draft bill (RUU) concerning the criminalisation of LGBT have been prepared by the MUI. “The academic paper is ready, the draft bill is ready. It will be discussed from the 24th to the 26th, after which we will declare it at the closing ceremony. It will then be submitted to the President and the DPR,” Cholil explained regarding the follow-up to the formulation.

Cholil elaborated that the primary focus of the criminalisation formulation does not unilaterally target sexual orientation, but rather deviant behaviour and campaign activities. The MUI views sexual orientation as a deviation that needs to be cured, not criminalised. However, the actions to be included as criminal offences under the proposed LGBT law are acts of molestation, intimate behaviour with the same sex, and openly campaigning for such a lifestyle in public spaces or on social media. “(A man committing) molestation against another man, as well as harassment against a man, intimate acts between men, (or) between women, are part of the criminal objects of this LGBT (bill). Likewise, openly campaigning on social media, we include as a criminal object,” Cholil stated.