Much of the muslims in South East Asia, or perhaps even the world, were surprised by a recent move by the Malaysian Fatwa Council to ban muslim Malaysians to practice yoga as it "can destroy the faith of muslims" due to its Hindu roots and influences. This news spread through the region; the quote above made it into Time magazine's Verbatim section this week. Naturally, a fatwa is not legally binding despite its influence among fatwa-obedient muslims. Nevertheless, as Islam is Malaysia's official religion, it is expected that it will soon make its mark in the national law. Of course this drew outrage from yoga practitioners, activists, and the mainstream muslim community for being too narrow-minded. Many Malaysian government officials, even some of its sultans, said that they will not rush adopting the fatwa to get a clearer picture of the issue.
At this point, you should be asking why I am taking this whole shebang seriously. It is happening in Malaysia, a country I've frequently ridiculed on this blog, while I myself am a proud Indonesian. Even though we're in the same regions and more often than not we've had some kind of a lover's quarrel, we shouldn't be meddling into each other's internal affairs, right?
Yeah right. Unless it is beginning to affect my beloved country Indonesia. Apparently, some of our ulamas (that's like the religious bigwigs), at least those who are not too busy campaigning for the next election, caught wind of this news and started their own brouhaha. The news said that they're taking this issue into consideration, although not instantly creating similar fatwa. First comments OK-ed yoga as long as muslims don't delve into the Hindu mysticism. However, it is also said that the Ulama Council will observe yoga practices in the country to finally arrive on a final decision. Errr, imagine you're minding your own yoga moves when an ulama barges in...wacko+ulama=wackolama.
I am very terribly sorry for the Malaysian community that they have to go through this unfunny joke. Yet, I setting my eyes on my country.
This is an alarming sign about the growing conservatism in Indonesia. After local governments throughout the country have been influenced into making deviant Sharia-inspired laws, and most recently the House passed the draconian Pornography Law, we cannot afford this kind of stupidity anymore. When I heard that the Council was going to ape its Malaysian counterpart, it was all blurgh, blurgh, and blurgh. How messed up must they be to prioritize this matter over a pedophile cleric and the worrying glorification of the Bali bombers? Those wackolamas should have known better to meddle into Indonesians' private lives.
Seriously, when was the last time their fatwa made as much as a ripple in our real life? I firmly believe that we, the majority of Indonesian muslims, are more than just a herd of animals that blindly obey what our ulamas spit out. This is where critical thinking plays a crucial part in keeping our faith stay true and avoiding the blind obedience that has wrapped women in restrictive hijabs and sent suicide bombers to wreak havoc on Earth. Keep in mind that Islam doesn't rely on any kind of hierarchy, which means that we don't need the approval of anyone to be a muslim and reach spiritual peace.
Our faith, our religion, and how we live our lives accordingly are strictly a private matter. No ulama can have the power forcing us to follow his/her fatwa. This is time that we stop such ridiculous trend in the country. I'm not saying that the ulama should just stay in their pesantrens or Qur'an recital groups, but they must place themselves in the community appropriately. If unfortunately this yoga fatwa actually comes out in Indonesia, don't blame us if people see Islam as a backward, isolated religion.
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