Ever since Indonesia's highest Islamic authority, the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) issued 11 'fatwas' or edicts against liberal Islam, a fierce debate has begun raging in the world's most populous Muslim nation on what constitutes an Islamic society.
In what was widely seen as an apparent campaign against freedom of thought and religion, the state-sanctioned Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued a fatwa outlawing liberal Islamic thoughts.
Rather than helping the people, in a number of areas, troops are intimidating villagers, scaring them away from their villages and then looting their homes, and in several cases, killing alleged separatists who are not armed.
Lily Zakiyah Munir is a leading Muslim women’s rights activist in Indonesia and works closely with the ‘ulama and students of Indonesian Islamic boarding schools or pesantrens.
A proposal by 13 Muslim scholars that abortion be legalized for pregnancy caused by rape or incest has sparked a variety of reactions among religious leaders.
