Gulf Times [Qatar], Thursday, 1 September, 2005, 11:12 AM
Clerics ban liberal group in Indonesia
JAKARTA: Indonesia's top Muslim clerics' body issued another controversial fatwa
yesterday banning a well-known liberal Muslim group, a local media report said
Monday.
The Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI), which represents a wide range of Muslims is
dominated by conservatives, issued an edict stating that Muslims were prohibited
from joining or following the Liberal Islamic Network (JIL).
Although the MUI's edicts are not legally binding, representatives of the group lobbied
lawmakers yesterday to throw their political support behind the fatwa against JIL.
"Liberal Islam is a deviant movement," Ma'aruf Amin, head of the MUI's fatwa
department, was quoted as saying by local private radio El Shinta during a session of
the House of Representatives.
"They are against the teaching of the holy Qur'an," said Ma'aruf Amin. "They consider
the holy Qur'an just an ordinary text made by humans and that is allowed to be
played with."
"Just let it be," Ulil Absar Abdalla, the young Islamic scholar who heads JIL, said by
phone. "I don't care about MUI's fatwa."
Thousands gathered in Jakarta's Al-Azhar Mosque last month to show support for the
controvertial fatwas. - DPA
© Gulf Times Newspaper, 2005
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