Indonesia doesn’t need a Grand Mufti, the MUI is enough.

Chairman of Indonesian Ulema Council, (Majelis Ulama, MUI) Ma’ruf Amien says the country does not need a middle eastern style Mufti Council of Muslim clerics, with a Grand Mufti at the head of it, to issue binding rulings on Islamic law.

Maruf Amin, not a mufti.

Maruf says the MUI already does the job of issuing fatwas, and it is an independent body, whereas a Mufti Council would be under the government. In any case he says the government already uses the fatwas of the MUI as guidance in creating laws, (as the police sometimes do in implementing them).

Additionally a Mufti Council needs to be headed by an extraordinarily wise man called a mujtahid mutlaq, whose knowledge of Islamic law should be as good as the historical figure Imam Syafi’I. No-one is suitably qualified for this position, Maruf says, not even his good self. bip