Indonesia Cleric’s Council, Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) will likely to issue a fatwa against smoking, or make it HARAM within Islam.

The issue surfaced (again) as MUI prepares their routine meeting forum, bahtsul masail, which will be held next October.

The cleric’s forum hasn’t even started yet but the tension already began. Last week in Jember, East Java, several tobacco farmers protested the predicted-coming fatwa.

Posters saying “MUI stop playing around”, “Tobacco feeds a lot of stomach”, and “Tobacco workers unite!” were displayed.

In Probolinggo, also a small town in East Java, local branch of tobacco farmers association, Asosiasi Petani Tembakau Indonesia (APTI), already rejected the predicted-coming fatwa.

Amin Subarkah, chairman of APTI East Java branch, said, “A lot of clerics have different opinons about smoking. I hope MUI will re-examine their [predicted coming] fatwa.”

Bear in mind that I’m a smoker, a heavy smoker to be accurate. I usually spend two packs of cigarettes a day. But I try to view this issue objectively. And one thing I can tell you is, Amin Subarkah was pretty wrong.

Clerics dont have many different opinions about smoking. The fact is, Islamic scholars are becoming more unanimous in prouncing smoking use clearly HARAM. In Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, for instance, the cleric’s council has already stated smoking is haram years ago.

But Indonesia is different. There’re many tobacco industries here. Also one crucial factor, we have Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s moderate (very moderate, perhaps) muslim organization, which happen to be the largest muslim organization in this country.

And it’s just nice to see how NU officials respond to the issue.

In an article published by The Jakarta Post, Muzaenah Zein, third secretary of Fatayat -NU women organization branch- told participants of the Fatayat NU National Conference in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, that she felt the [predicted] ruling was EXTREME and DETRIMENTAL to the nation’s economy, as it would affect the country’s tobacco industry.

“Cigarette smoking is considered offensive (MAKRUH), as it is detrimental to one’s health. However, it would be better if the prohibiton is conveyed through religious counsel and missionary work (instead of fatwa),” she said.

Hehehe.. Amin Subarkah, and every muslim smoker in this country (me included), will be glad to hear such “fatwa” from NU officials.

But wait, there’s more ‘counter-fatwa’ coming, and this one is from a  higher NU official.

KH. Najmudin, Roois Aam NU Jember, a smoker, said to a reporter of Tempo magazine that difference of opinions within khilafiyah matters [it means okay to have different opinions] is not supposed to be strictened.

Najmudin said that in NU tradition, smoking is in the same league as ‘number of tarawih prayers’ or ‘bank interest’. He futher added that many NU scholars smoke since they were young in order to ‘unblock mental obstacles in thinking‘.

Hahaha… a very-very typical NU fatwa! No kidding. Reminds me of my old ustadz at madrasah. He undoubtely would say the same.

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