New Fatwas
May 28th, 2006, in News, by PatungThe Indonesian Ulema Council has issued 19 new fatwas.
1000 members of the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) met at the Pondok Pesantren Modern Darussalam Gontor, Ponorogo, East Java, 25-28th May and concluded their session with the issuance of the nineteen fatwas. Ma’ruf Amin, the chairman of the Fatwa Commission of the MUI said:
The 19 fatwas are divided into three groups, that is, fatwas concerning fundamental matters of religion and the state, fatwas dealing with contemporary issues, and fatwas about legal questions.
(Dari 19 fatwa ini, kami bagi ke dalam tiga kelompok fatwa, yaitu fatwa mengenai masa’il asasiyah wathoniyah (masalah asasi keagamaan dan kenegaraan), fatwa masa’il waqi’iyah mu’ashirah (masalah tematik kontemporer) dan fatwa tentang masa’il qununiyyah (masalah hukum dan perundang-undangan).)
Some of the fatwas are written in typically pompous vague language and refer to fairly general topics while others deal with practical problems.
State Issues
- The form and existence of the Indonesian state, NKRI, is final.
- There needs to be a harmonisation of the framework in thinking about religion’s role in nationality.
- Systems of thought in religion need to be compared or equalised.
- Islamic organisations need to work together for dakwah purposes.
Contemporary Issues
- Forbidden to commit self-harm while demonstrating. (see Hunger Strikes are Haram.)
- Forbidden to transfer embryos to another womb.
- Permissible to use alternative medicine.
- Permissible to marry without state recognition of the marriage.
- Forbidden to receive prizes via SMS.
- Permissible for natural resources to be managed by anyone including foreigners provided they are not harmed.
- Permissible to borrow money from abroad for development purposes provided state finances are insufficient.
- Forbidden to eat any kind of food which originates in food sources that are haram.
Legal Issues
- The anti-pornography bill (RUU APP) should be passed immediately.
- The anti-discrimination bill (RUU Antidiskriminasi Ras) should not be passed.
- Approval for the sharia banking bill (RUU Perbankan Syariah).
- Approval for the religious marriage court bill (RUU Hukum Terapan Peradilan Agama Bidang Perkawinan).
- There should be revision of the alms law (UU Pengelolaan Zakat).
- The health law should be revised.
- Provincial and local goverments should pass anti-sin laws, epecially anti-prostitution ones.
The conference had been opened by the head of the Supreme Court, Bagir Manan, who is under investigation on corruption charges, and he got the ball rolling with the observation that sharia law had been applied in Indonesia, in the form of formal courts, from the earliest period of Islam’s entrance into the archipelago. Get used to it, he might have said.
9 Comments on “New Fatwas”
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Sarawut Pratoomraj says:
As a foreigner and not Muslim .Have some one tell me that do Prophet Muhammad agree to discrimination?
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The MUI seem to object to race and ethnicity being considered important things about a person.
Religion should be used as the guiding standard.
(Seharusnya agama digunakan sebagai kaidah penuntun.)said Ma’ruf Amin of the MUI who went on to add that the failure to use religion as the defining thing about a person was evidence of jahiliyah, or pagan/pre-Islamic thinking.
He went on to say that a special law against discrimination was unnecessary since it was already illegal and there existed the danger that it would be over-the-top and even useless. (!!!!)This of course is the exact same argument that many use against the RUU APP, the anti-pornography law, but this appears not to have occured to Ma’ruf Amin.
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Anonymous_aloy says:
The only fatwa Indonesians need now is the fatwa to dissolve the MUI.
Mr. Rockstar, MUI is a joke. Unfortunately, that makes Indonesia a joke too.
Mr. Pratoomraj, maybe he did, maybe he did not. As a Moslem, I’d like to think he never did. But I’ve been wrong before. Then again, other than for historical curiousity, what the Prophet did should bear little relevance to Moslems today, if it is in conflict with norms and values in today’s world. I think the Prophet himself would’ve approved with this approach of Islam.
It is the literal interpretations of Quran and the Hadistz are behind the backwardness of Islam. The MUI are obviously trying the best they can to keep Islam and Indonesia backward.
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Thank you Mr.Anonymous for your respond.As far as I know I am afraid about those country which use religion approach in conduct country it is not success enough .Not only unsuccess but also make a lot of trouble to the country .In Europe middle age.Christian,pope,at that time give more attention or sanction to the king and has corrupted so Christian community broken into many branch .In Afkanistan ,Taliban era it proved some failuer of use religion to rule the conntry.I hope Indonesia will not follow the past by use Islamic law for countrol the country.
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Mr. Pratoomraj, I fully agree with you and I am sure Indonesia will be a failed nation if it follows the path you’re suggesting. Having successfully reject the wholesale implementation of Syariah, Indonesians are now really having difficulties repelling the piecemeal or bite-size Syariah laws in many disguises (RUU APP being one of the most obviouse one, but look also at Education Law passed a few years back). An Indonesian Moslem like me should be very afraid because these laws will force us to become non-Indonesian and ultimately non-Moslem. Non-Moslem Indonesians should also be very afraid because if today they become second-class citizens, what will happen tomorrow?
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Anonymous Says:
“An Indonesian Moslem like me should be very afraid because these laws will force us to become non-Indonesian and ultimately non-Moslem.”Yeah, I’ve been worried of the same thing since this RUUAPP is being talked about widely.
So sad, right?
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Dragonwall says:
The final fatwa they will announce with solemn approval of all the Islamic followers is that:
Everyone please line up and sign in as Islam and you will be entitled to have 4 wives or perhaps 4 husbands!
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Stefan says:
What happened to the discrimination bill? Has it been passed or has it been dropped? Or is it still under consideration?
Comment on “New Fatwas”.
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# The anti-pornography bill (RUU APP) should be passed immediately.
# The anti-discrimination bill (RUU Antidiskriminasi Ras) should not be passed.
tell me these two aren’t a joke.
so yea.. discrimination is far less important than pornography. thank you now I know why I dont wanna go back to Indonesia.