Similar to its Malaysian counterpart, the Indonesian Council of Islamic Scholars triggered a round of controversy when some weeks ago, it issued six fatwas against smoking, abstention from voting, underage marriage, yoga, vasectomies and abortion.
The council, also known as MUI, has in recent years issued many other fatwas, including against “inter-religious marriages”, “pluralism, secularism and religious liberalism” and the Islamic Ahmadiyah sect. All of these decrees have met with varying degrees of criticism from both non-Muslims and Muslims. This is despite that some rulings have existed in a similar form for years.
The MUI’s fatwa calling on the government to dissolve Ahmadiyah, for instance, has come in for particularly strong condemnation but it is nothing new. As far back as 1980, the council issued a decree declaring Ahmadiyah deviant (sesat).
A call to the ballot box by Islamic organizations is by no means new either. Only this time the fatwa has more general quality as it forbids voting abstinence per se. But, crucially, it goes on by calling on Muslims to vote for “qualified Muslim candidates”. Prior to Indonesia’s 1955 elections, Islamic organizations issued fatwas stating that it was obligatory for Muslims to vote for candidates who endeavoured to implement Islamic law and teachings. Ahead of the 1999 elections, the MUI and Muhammadiyah issued separate fatwas— though using the ‘softer’ term ‘appeal’ (seruan) - calling on Muslims to vote for a party that would “guard Islamic interests”. If anything, the MUI’s most recent ruling is more guarded in tone than those of the 1950s. Yet the purpose—directing Muslim votes to Islam-friendly parties—remains the same.
The ruling on vasectomies, too, is an update of an older fatwa, basically reiterating a 1979 decree.
The council's fatwa on “pluralism, secularism and religious liberalism” has also been denounced. But while the fatwa’s content is conservative, it is nothing out of the ordinary. It merely reaffirms Islam’s central claim to be the final true religion revealed to humankind and so rejects the equality of faiths (pluralism) while acknowledging the existence of other religions (plurality). Critics of the fatwa usually refer to the part which declares that the “Muslim community is forbidden to follow the beliefs of pluralism, secularism and religious liberalism”.
However, they generally ignore another section of the ruling which holds that “for Muslims who live side by side with adherents of other faiths (religious plurality), the Muslim community [has to] behave inclusively, in the sense of maintaining social relations with adherents of other religions as long as no mutual harm is caused”.
The ban on yoga exercises that include elements of Hindu worship belongs to the tradition of removing unwanted beliefs and practices from Islam. Such efforts have always been a vital aspect of Islamic modernism in Indonesia as elsewhere in the Muslim world.
In the case of abortion, the MUI’s fatwa declares it to be haram (forbidden by Islamic law) unless the pregnancy was caused by rape or if the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life. The decree also rules that the abortion must be carried out during the first five weeks of pregnancy. Here, the MUI appears to follow a hadith (accounts of the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad) which holds that the unborn child attains its religious soul on the 40th day of the pregnancy. The council, therefore, prohibits abortion at a later stage.
Common sense rather than a clear Quranic command seems to have prompted the MUI’s fatwa against smoking. The ban applies to children, pregnant women, and to smoking in public places. In essence, it is not much different from regulations and common perceptions in many Western countries today.
Of more interest is the MUI’s decree against underage marriage. This ruling is often discussed in connection with the case of preacher Pujiono Cahyo Widayanto, also known as Syekh Puji Pujiono, who heads an Islamic boarding school near the city of Semarang in Central Java. Last year, he was “informally married” (nikah siri) to a girl short of her 12th birthday.
Legal experts differ on the minimum age for marriage that Islam allows. It is, however, usually agreed that sexual maturity of both parties is a precondition for marriage and that a girl may live with her husband only when she is deemed ready for sexual relations. Advocates of underage marriage often point out that the Prophet Muhammad was betrothed to his future wife Aisha when she was seven years old. She is said to have stayed at home for two more years before the marriage was consummated. Similar arguments were made by politician Hilman Rosyad Syihab, from the Islamist Justice and Welfare Party (PKS), when commenting on Pujiono’s case.
By outlawing marriage for men younger than 19 and for women under 16 years of age, the MUI has, significantly, opted to follow Indonesia’s marriage law rather than the traditions of Islamic law.
Hence, apart from the fatwa against underage marriage, there is in fact little new about the council's latest rulings.
