Ulema council regrets discrimination againts Islamic names

Jakarta, NU Online
The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has voiced its discontent to the discrimination against the names of Muhammad and Ali in immigration documents censored by the autogate system installed at the Soekarno Hatta International Airport.<>

"The MUI deeply regrets such form of discrimination. The MUI demands the government to withdraw the policy," MUI Chairman of Education Affairs Anwar Abbas said here on Sunday.

This system will trigger unrest in the community as it promotes anti-Islamic sentiments, when in fact Islam is the main religion in Indonesia as Muslims constitute almost 90 percent of its population.

The name of Muhammad is derived from Prophet Muhammad, the last prophet in Islam, and Ali is the name of the Prophet's cousin.

"Moreover, we have heard that many Indonesians having the names of Muhammad and Ali could not go abroad. Their visits have been hampered, and they have to go through lengthy interviews," he said.

"This policy is unacceptable," he affirmed.

However, spokesman of the Immigration Directorate General Yan Wely Wiguna noted that the autogate system was not designed to reject names such as Muhammad and Ali.

"The system will show the results of the data verification process, which indicate similarities or matches with data on prevention or immigration data, which had been earlier fed into the system," Wiguna noted.

"Autogate" is a device designed to record data of traffic at Immigration Checkpoints (TPIs) for Indonesian nationals holding electronic and non-electronic passports.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq