A

ug. 26, p1

The name of a 42-year-old Muslim man from Banyuwangi regency, East Java, has caused great offense to the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).

The MUI'€™s East Java chapter has urged the regency administration to instruct the man, named Tuhan ('€œGod'€ in Indonesian), to change or lengthen his name.

'€œHe should add another name to his name, or better still, change it altogether. As God'€™s slave, the name is unethical,'€ MUI East Java chapter head KH Abdusshomad Bukhori said.

He said that in Islam, using the name Tuhan was not a problem, as long as it was preceded or followed by another name, so as to prevent confusion.

Your comments:

Have fear in Almighty God and follow the right path. Avoid ignorance.

Mohammad Yousof

Once again we see the medieval MUI completely out of touch with reality.

Time this madness was abolished!

Why can'€™t the MUI try to understand the word '€œTuhan'€ from a local perspective before coming out with silly demands that someone should change the name given to him by his parents?

Terry McAsee

'€œHe should add something before or after the name.'€ How about '€œNottheonly'€ or '€œSupreme'€ or even '€œNottheonly Supreme'€, or better yet, change his name to something like '€œDeity'€ or '€œSupernaturalbeingworshippedbyhumans'€.

Fred Frogley

He can just add his father'€™s name and become Tuhan Jumhar.

Loh Taun

I met a guy named Zeus once. Indonesia is becoming more Arab, more dogmatic and intransigent.

This guy is 42 years old so he'€™s gone a significant portion of his life without trouble over this and along comes the MUI. Proof the place has gone downhill in the last 42 years!

Nate

Why is the MUI getting involved in this man'€™s business? He didn'€™t name himself, his parents did, which was surely on his birth certificate and all his other legal documents with no problem. The man is 42 years old and has had this name for all those years, now the MUI expects and demands the government have his identity documents revoked until he changes his name. The MUI is becoming very radical in its demands and needs to butt out of the business of others. The MUI is behaving disgracefully. If it gets its way now, it will continue to discriminate against people. Let Allah SWT decide!

The MUI doesn'€™t care about local dialects or traditions. It is too blind to acknowledge its discriminatory, prejudicial and radical thinking.

Willo

His parents may have had a good reason for naming him Tuhan. The MUI has no right to demand a name change. It would be a better idea would be for them to look at how to reduce smoking, which is killing countless people.

AA

I remember visiting Singapore when I was very young and was told that the first lady was '€œPuan Noor Aisha'€, wife of President Yusof Ishak, whose portrait adorns today'€™s Singaporean banknotes. I was told that puan meant '€œlady'€ in English and that it was appropriate to address her as '€œLady Noor Aisha'€.

If this guy'€™s identity card and other personal documents are revoked, shouldn'€™t that imply that we should not have a '€œPuan'€ in government for the same reason?

Pauloh

Thank goodness for Antariksawan Jusuf, the language expert with common sense.

The East Java MUI chapter'€™s demand that Tuhan change his name is outrageous. Its contemptible plans to send a letter to the regency'€™s registry office to withdraw Tuhan'€™s identity card so that he will not be able to access any public services until he changes his name is a repugnant violation of Tuhan'€™s human rights.

By believing that it and its dim-witted, uneducated, arrogant clerics can arbitrarily and viciously order people around, the MUI is actually contributing to the decline of the belief in true Islam, which calls itself '€œThe Religion of Peace'€.

It is also becoming the target of ridicule and scorn '€” and no institution, religious or otherwise, ever survived that.

Firepooch