Ulemas deny pardoning Harmoko

JAKARTA (JP): The Ulemas Council (MUI), an umbrella group for Indonesian Moslem organizations, denies forgiving Information Minister Harmoko for allegedly offending Islam by twisting a verse from the Koran.

Council chairman Hasan Basri said in Surabaya Saturday that what he said in a press statement earlier this month was that the influential body "understood" that Harmoko made a slip of the tongue.

"No, no. We didn't say 'pardon' but we said 'could understand' because to err is just human", Basri was quoted by the Antara news agency.

Harmoko, who is also chief of the ruling Golkar party, reportedly "mispronounced" the Al-Fatihah verse of the Koran when he was opening a shadow puppet festival in the ancient Central Javanese town of Surakarta in July.

Basri said that the council is not in a position to forgive anyone making a mistake concerning Islam because only Allah has the divine authority to do so.

"He (Harmoko) can pray for forgiveness to God. If there is any impression that the council pardons him, it must be a misinterpretation," he said.

Spearheaded by students, Moslems unhappy with the prompt reaction from the council have held demonstrations in Yogyakarta and Jakarta protesting both the council and Harmoko.

The prosecutor's office, which also has come under attack for not enforcing the law the same way it has with a number of other accused of committing similar offenses, has legally cleared Harmoko of any wrongdoing on the grounds that he did it by mistake. (pan)