Posted 30 July 2006 @ 13:46
JAKARTA, 30 July 2006 - Indonesia's largest Islamic movement, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), is considering issuing an edict that would ban Muslims from producing or watching popular television gossip shows, an NU official said Sunday. "It is still being debated and any final decision will have to be taken in a plenary later today," said Ali Machsan Musa, head of NU's East Java chapter.
Musa told AFP the edict, if agreed by a congress of the organisation in
Surabaya, capital of East Java, would declare it a sin for Muslims to produce or watch the gossip shows, known as infotainment news. More than 40 gossip shows are broadcast weekly by the 11 television channels in what is the world's largest Muslim country, the Jakarta Post daily said.
Musa declined to provide further detail on the possible "fatwa," or religious edict issued by Muslim scholars. But he said "support for the prohibition is very strong" among congress participants. The shows, which have sprung up in recent years, are second in popularity only to locally-made soap operas, and are especially favoured by young people and housewives.
They feature interviews with local celebrities who are often asked to comment on gossip circulating about them, but can do little to dispel false rumors. Said Agil Siradj, an executive of the NU's central board, was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying the move against the shows sprang from concerns that they "will destroy young people and because the Koran strictly forbids spreading gossip".
Siradj said if a fatwah was issued, Muslims producing the shows would be considered sinners, and Muslims would be urged to avoid watching the programs. More than 90 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslims. NU has at least 30 million members.
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