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igid implementation of sharia-based regulations will not automatically make cities that have put Islamic norms and values into practice “Islamic cities”.

A survey by the Maarif Institute has instead found Yogyakarta, Bandung and Denpasar to be the cities that most implement Islamic core values.

The three cities tied, all scoring 80.64 on the institute’s Islamic City Index, based on three indicators: safety, prosperity and happiness. They defeated cities that have been implementing sharia regulations more formally to safeguard citizens’ morality, including Banda Aceh, Tangerang, Mataram and Padang.

The institute’s research director, Ahmad Imam Mujadid Rais, said the survey took into account
local regulations and statistics of 29 cities, including six cities that implement sharia principles when drafting local regulations.

The survey also found that Muslim-minority cities such as Hindu-majority Denpasar and the Christian-majority cities of Ambon and Manado rank as more Islamic than the likes of Banda Aceh, Tangerang, Padang, and Makassar, which have Muslim-majority populations.

Ahmad said the survey showed that the implementation of Islamic values through what are known as morality bylaws did not lead to a “high level of Islamic core values”.

In some of those regions, including the 25th-ranked Tangerang with a score of 61.99, local authorities have slapped night curfews on women, prohibiting them from going out at night without their husbands or a male relative.

Meanwhile, Banda Aceh, ranked at 19th with a score of 69.92, banned women from working at tourism sites after 11 p.m. in a 2015 local qanun (sharia regulation).

Ahmad said the three indicators — safety, prosperity and happiness — were derived from the core values of Islamic teachings.

“A safe city means that it provides, among other things, freedom of religion and assurance that women, children and people with a disability can exercise their political rights,” Ahmad said Tuesday while delivering the survey results at Alila Hotel in Central Jakarta.

The prosperity of a city, he said, could be gauged from looking at its provision of education, job opportunities and health services to its citizens.

“We measured a city’s happiness level by observing its local regulations [and] whether or not they stipulated, for instance, the provision of health services and green environments for their citizens,” he said.

Muslim scholar Yudi Latif applauded the survey, saying it demonstrated “that local authorities that created sharia-based local regulations had failed to provide their citizens with prosperity”.

“They use sharia-based local regulations as tools to cover up their inability to provide safety and happiness to all of their citizens,” Yudi said.

He criticized the survey, however, for only using data from local authorities as a gauge, rather than interviewing residents to obtain more accurate perceptions.

“Happiness, safety and prosperity levels are rather subjective issues that can only be measured by asking citizens one by one,” he said. (mos)