MUI asks government to protect Shia followers

Head of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) Ma’aruf amin has asked the government to protect the Shia followers who are currently taking refuge following the burning down of their boarding school in Sampang, Madura.

“Please don’t let any violence befall them. We should be very critical in responding to this situation. No one should label Shia as heresy,” Amin said on Monday as quoted by tempo.co.

The statement was made in response to the head of the MUI Sampang Bukhori Maksum who had previously announced that the Shia followers in Sampang were heretics, as they had deviated from the true teachings of Islam.

“We will continue conducting further studies before we can come to that conclusion. In the mean time, I hope everybody can calm down and be rational about this,” Amin said.(dic)