Tangerang MUI issues 10 edicts
Multa Fidrus, Tangerang
The Tangerang regency branch of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) has issued 10 fatwas aimed at improving the work of the local administration, the police, the Banten provincial administration and even the central government.
"As a religious institution, the MUI has a moral responsibility to give advice to the executive, legislature and judiciary," Rasna Dahlan, the regency MUI general secretary told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
"We want to see clean and good governance established in the country," he added.
The non-legally binding edicts were issued during a Tangerang MUI summit over the weekend.
The first fatwa is directed at the police, urging the force to fight against drug abuse, liquor sales and gambling in the regency.
The second one recommends collaboration between the public order agency and the security forces against rampant prostitution in almost all districts of Tangerang.
Thirdly, the MUI urged the police and the administration to stage a joint operation to eradicate the sale of pornographic VCDs and pictures, which the ulemas said were eroding the moral fiber of the younger generation.
Next on the list was MUI support for the construction of a Grand Mosque in the regency capital of Tigaraksa, and an Islamic Center in Panongan district.
"The construction of the Grand Mosque has been delayed for four years ... we ask the administration to complete it by December 2004 at the latest," Dahlan said.
The MUI also referred to the long delay in a Haj dormitory project in Curug district.
"We would call on the Banten provincial administration and the central government to accelerate construction as we need it," Dahlan added.
The MUI also requested businesspeople to provide places of worship, like musholla (prayer rooms) or even full-scale mosques, on the premises of companies and factories, and in shopping malls.
The regency council was also urged to soon issue a bylaw setting out the procedures for the collection and distribution of Islamic alms by the Tangerang alms agency.
In its seventh fatwa, the MUI told the regency administration to provide community development funds for Islamic religious schools, foundations, mosque development projects and Islamic groups in a transparent way.
So as to improve the morals and mentalities of civil servants, the MUI recommended that the regency administration hold monthly tadarus (Koran-reading sessions) for the officials.
The last fatwa was once again directed at the police. This time the MUI demanded that the police thoroughly investigate alleged embezzlement by regency councillors of Rp 3.3 billion (US$354,838) in community development funds.