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MUI purges government critics from its ranks
Din Syamsuddin, a prominent Islamic scholar from Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organization Muhammadiyah, is no longer on either the executive board or the advisory board.
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Voice of Indonesia: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Vice President Ma’ruf Amin hold a press conference at Merdeka Palace on Oct. 31, specifically to respond to French President Emmanuel Macron on the cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. (Presidential Palace/Rusman)
T
he Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) elected its new leadership this week, consisting of Muslim clerics friendly to the government who replaced a coterie of critics of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, including prominent Islamic scholar Din Syamsuddin.
The MUI congress, which wrapped up on Friday, has also issued a number of recommendations that could be seen as a victory for Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, including an edict allowing the use of vaccines derived from human cells in an emergency situation, even though such vaccines are traditionally banned under Islamic law.
Ma'ruf himself also managed to pull off a maneuver that allowed him to be elected to the council's advisory board, replacing Din, who served between 2015 and 2020. Prior to his election as chairman of the advisory board, Din served as MUI chairman between 2005 and 2010.
While serving as chairman of the advisory board, Din made his opposition to President Jokowi known to the public, including in 2017, when he fought against the reelection campaign of then-Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama. Din called Ahok a “troublemaker” following the blasphemy allegation leveled against the Chinese-Indonesian politician, an epithet that has become a rallying call in massive rallies demanding his prosecution.
Aside from Din, other senior Muslim figures kicked out of MUI boards include Bachtiar Nasir, who served as deputy secretary of the ulema council advisory board from 2015 to 2020.
Bachtiar has recently served as chairman of the National Movement to Safeguard the Indonesian Ulema Council’s Fatwa (GNPF-MUI), a conservative Islamic group that organized a massive rally that led to the prosecution of Ahok for blasphemy in 2017.
Also missing from the MUI's new leadership lineup is Tengku Zulkarnain, who served as deputy secretary general from 2015 to 2020. Tengku was an ally to Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab and has been a very outspoken critic of government policies.
