REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The Chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI), KH Ma'ruf Amin, became the first witness in the trial of alleged blasphemy case by Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) in the auditorium of Ministry of Agriculture, South Jakarta, on Tuesday. The Chairman of the judges, Dwiarso Budi Santiarto, asked a number of questions to him.
In his testimony, Kiai Ma'ruf explained that he received the information from the news media. There were also many parties asked for MUI to give opinion about it. "There was a demand from the public. There were also verbal and written (requests), so (MUI) immediately had a guidance. There (was a request from) anti-blasphemy forum," said Kiai Ma'ruf during the session.
After getting some request from the public, he said, MUI subsequently formed a team. The team consisted of four commissions, namely fatwa commission, assessment commission, law commission and information and communication commission.
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"(The member of the) discussion are the chairman, the secretaries, and about 20 other people. (Start) by conducting research, doing field investigation, discussing and making conclusion,” said Kiai Ma'ruf.
The discussion was held on October 1-10, 2016. After 11 days of discussion, Ahok’s statement on September 27, 2016 in Pramuka Island, part of Seribu Island, was considered as blasphemy, in the part when he quoted Surah al-Maidah verse 51.
"That the sentence contained an insult against the Quran and the clergies. The result was the statement of opinion and the religious act of MUI," he said.
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Kiai Ma'ruf added that the results of the discussion, said that Ahok had insult the Quran and the ulemas, was higher than any other MUI’s fatwa. MUI’s fatwa were made by the fatwa commission, while the discussion involved the four commissions in MUI.
"This was higher, because it was not only discussed by the fatwa commission, but by the four commissions. It was discussed by the board in duty, and then the results became the statement and act of MUI," he said.
On the same occasion, Kiai Ma’ruf claimed never watched the full version of the video. He knew the alleged blasphemy from a number of mass media reporting. He also said that there was a team in MUI who was assigned to watch the video.
Kiai Ma’ruf said to know the controversial statement from the script. He saw some news which considered Ahok to do an insult to Islam. "From the news in the printed media and TV. I rarely saw the social media. I only read the writing. It is the team (who watched the video and saw social media)," he said.
The session today would also present four other witnesses, namely Ibnu Baskoro as a complainant witness, two fishermen from Seribu Islands, namely Zainudin Alias Panel and Saifuddin alias Deny, and a commissioner of the Jakarta General Election Commission (KPU), Dahliah Umar.
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