The controversy surrounding the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI)’s advice to Muslims to avoid using greetings from other religions has some people wondering: why don’t we stop using religious greetings altogether? East Java MUI chairman Abdusshomad Buchori issued a letter last week advising Muslims against using greetings from other religions, calling the practice a form of bid’ah (heresy)
span>The controversy surrounding the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI)’s advice to Muslims to avoid using greetings from other religions has some people wondering: why don’t we stop using religious greetings altogether?
East Java MUI chairman Abdusshomad Buchori issued a letter last week advising Muslims against using greetings from other religions, calling the practice a form of bid’ah (heresy).
“For Muslims, it’s enough to say assalamu 'alaikum,” he wrote. “That way, Muslims can avoid syubhat [doubtful] actions that can harm the purity of their religion.”
It is common practice for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo — who is Muslim — and many government officials to open their speeches with a litany of traditional religious greetings. They start with assalamu 'alaikum for Muslims, shalom for Christians, om swastiastu for Hindus, namo buddhaya for Buddhists and salam kebajikan or wei de dong tian for Confucians.
“The Buddhist greeting namo buddhaya means ‘homage to Buddha’, an expression that cannot be separated from Buddhists’ beliefs about [the religion’s founder] Siddharta Gautama,” Abdusshomad suggested.
“Om swastiastu is also a prayer that means “may Sang Hyang Widhi [the Hindu deity] give you goodness and happiness.”
MUI secretary-general Anwar Abbas has thrown his support behind Abdusshomad, underscoring that Muslims should pray to and ask for mercy from Allah alone.
“If they do otherwise, they just draw themselves into the wrath of Allah,” Anwar warned.
Many netizens challenged the MUI’s suggestion, saying that the multiple-religion greetings are an inclusive gesture that should be preserved in a diverse country like Indonesia.
Interestingly, one Catholic priest has gone against the grain by suggesting policymakers refrain from using religious greetings altogether in their official speeches.
Sudrijanta Johanes argued that such a bold move could “root out religious radicalism in the nation”.
“If I were the country’s religious affairs minister, I would ban the use of religious greetings like assalamu 'alaikum, shalom, om swastiastu, namo buddhaya and others,” he said in a recent Facebook post.
The public post has received mixed comments from Facebook users, with some supporting his arguments and others making fun of it.
“If we think deeply about it, we can see that this is one good perspective,” a Facebook user, Thomas Kinantyo, commented.
Meanwhile, another netizen Rizky Putra said he was grateful that the man who had such an opinion was not the real religious affairs minister.
Jokowi’s Cabinet apparently gave the cold shoulder to the MUI’s suggestion. On Monday, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto started his first hearing with House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees defense, foreign affairs, information and intelligence, by reciting the five-religion greetings.
Separately, Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko said, “It will be business as usual as it’s merely advice [from the MUI].”
The Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), meanwhile, reacted calmly to the matter.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with giving others a blessing,” PGI chairman Albertus Patty told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He argued that historically speaking, the assalamu 'alaikum expression was actually used by Christians and Jews who lived in the Middle East long before Islam existed.
Albertus said the Hebrew greeting shalom aleichem, used by both Christians and Jews, and Islam’s assalamu 'alaikum come from the same root. They both mean peace.
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