Introduction

Apart from pluralism, liberalism, and secularism, MUI has also pronounced legal opinion ( fatwā) on religious sects within Indonesian Islam. This chapter focuses on MUI's legal opinion (fatwā) on the religious status and legitimacy of Ahmadiyya and Shi’a. These religious minority groups have been subjected to both verbal abuse and physical violence and discrimination in recent years. A spate of violence against them, apparently induced by religious motives has sparked in several parts of the country against them. To mention some examples, in June 2005, Ahmadiyya members in Parung, West Java, were attacked by some members of certain Islamic organizations. In December 2007, mass violence targeted at Ahmadiyya members occurred in Kuningan, also in West Java. Several months later, similar riots took place in Sukabumi on 28 April 2008; and in 2011, the same hostility occurred to Ahmadiyya community in Pandeglang, West Java.

Other than the Ahmadiyya, the Shi’a, another minority group, has also been subject to pejorative labeling, threats, and demonization based on the perception that the group has deviated from Islam's basic tenets. While the matter of freedom of belief or faith is upheld as a fundamental legal principle in many advanced societies, in countries such as Indonesia those who are alleged as deviants and spoilers of the religion could be prosecuted as was the case with the Shi’a in Sampang, Madura. In 2012, a Shi’a cleric in Sampang was legally sanctioned by local Sunni leaders under the charge of spreading heretical interpretations of Islam. Furthermore, Sunni leaders in Madura also pushed the provincial government of East Java to ban Shi’a through a formal provincial regulation to prevent the spread of the teachings of Shi’a. Controversy again arose when violence against Shi’a sparked once more in August and September 2012 when some Shi’a followers were tortured, and their lives were threatened. Some of them were killed, and their homes and properties were burnt.

This unfortunate spate of sectarian conflicts and tensions appeared to have been induced by religiously-motivated conflicts which arose around or after the proclamation of legal opinion (fatwā) by MUI bearing on the status of these religious minorities or sects.