REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SAMPANG -- The Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) of Sampang district on the island of Madura, East Java, will design a concept of Islamic tourism to meet the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community.

"Islamic management of tourism is needed to protect the local people of Madura from bad influences which are against religious values," the secretary of the MUI Sampang chapter, Moh Sueb, said here Saturday.

The community of Sampang in particular and Madura in general will not be able to reject everything coming from outside because Indonesia has agreed to the implementation of ASEAN free trade, he said.

In view of that it is not impossible for things that are against local traditions and values to happen, he added.

Therefore, the local community and governments including clerics must be able to regulate visitors so that they would comply with local regulations.

"With regard to tourism, we are now designing a concept of Islamic tourism," he said.

Not only in the tourism sector, but MUI Sampang as well as three other MUI chapters on the Madura island, have also thought of designing an Islamic concept in hotel management, education and industrialization, he said.

The implementation of an Islamic concept on Madura had indeed been discussed during a Madura-wide MUI meeting several days ago and it is being finalized, he explained.

MUI plans to gather experts from the hotel industry, tourist destination management, and universities and Islamic boarding schools, for finalizing the concept, he added.

On a separate occasion, the head of the Sampang district, KH Fannan Hasib, said he agreed with the MUI idea and was of the view that the Madurese community must be protected from various possible negative influences.

"Madura indeed has to advance on all fronts, but Islamic values must remain preserved there," he said.

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