MUI demands drop of judicial review of interfaith marriage law

Jakarta, NU Online
The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has asked the country's Constitutional Court (MK) to drop the case of judicial review on inter-religious marriages as it would benefit no one.<>

"We have already held a meeting with religious councils of Hindus, Buddhists and Christians and they have all agreed they are against inter-religious marriages in view of its disadvantages," MUI secretary Wellya Safitri said here on Thursday.

MUI had also invited 40 mass organizations to discuss the judicial review of the law by MK and they have expressed their objections to it, she said.

After being studied, none of the laws, which are based on various marriage laws in Indonesia, mentioned inter-religious marriages and, therefore, if the court accepted the judicial review demand it would not be recognized.

Many inter-religious marriages had finally only broken up, she said, referring as an example to the case of artists Jamal Mirdad and Lidya Kandou.

"In view of that we will be sending a letter to MK to demand that it reject their judicial review demand and we would certainly be supported by all religions and mass organizations," she said.

MUI also planned to send a letter to the House of Representatives and conduct a "Save Indonesian Families" campaign by putting up banners and distributing brochures to the regions, she said.

"We will organize joint movements in various regions so that we are not caught off-guard and have to accept rules that would not help us to save Indonesian families," she said.

MK is currently conducting a judicial review on Article 2 Paragraph 1 of Law Number 1 of 1974 on marriage which states that a marriage is only legitimate if it is based on the religious laws of the parties concerned.

Five law students of the state's Indonesia University have filed a request for a judicial review of the article and consider legalizing mixed marriages as it would make it easy to get a husband from a different religious background.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq