City enlists ulema for battling AIDS

JAKARTA: Governor Fauzi Bowo says that he has placed his hopes on religious preachers to help reduce the vast spread of HIV/AIDS in the city.

“The number of HIV/AIDS sufferers in Jakarta is rising and a lot of those infected are Muslims. I think it is the task of Muslim scholars in Jakarta, especially the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Ulema Council [MUI], to educate young people with moral guidance,” he said on Wednesday, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

The AIDS Control Commission (KPAD) has revealed that the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Jakarta had been rising and had reached 1,184 people in 2011. Fauzi said that current measures that had been employed to prevent further infections of the disease were useless without moral education.

“I hope that the MUI places moral education and working with youths as a priority in its work program to help them avoid getting infected with HIV/AIDS,” he said.