Tangerang MUI issues 10 edicts

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.