THE VIEWPOINTS OF INDONESIAN ISLAMIC SCHOLARS ON THE FATWA CONCERNING TERRORISM ISSUED BY THE INDONESIAN ULEMA COUNCIL (MUI): AN ANALYSIS

Terrorism is a form of violation of human rights andcivilization hence it is an extremely dangerous threatto a country’s sovereignty. The incidence of severalterrorist attacks in certain countries, includingIndonesia, triggers turmoil and fear on severalorganizations, including the Religious IndonesianUlema Council (MUI). The MUI is an organizationrepresentative of Indonesia’s ulema and Islamicreligious scholars. These acts of terrorism resultedin the Indonesian Ulema Council, through the fatwacommission at the national ijtima of ulema, to enforcea fatwa on terrorism referred to as Fatwa No.03 Year2004. Regrettably, numerous terrorist attacks are stillbeing conducted in Indonesia, despite the issuance of the fatwa on terrorism by the MUI. Regrettably,various terrorist attacks are still taking place in thecountry. This fatwa failed to provide a sustainablesolution to issues of terrorism in Indonesia. This couldbe due to the fact that it is not widely disseminated tothe Indonesian community, religious as well as otherorganizations, thus leading to ignorance of the fatwaconcerning terrorism among individuals and groups.Hence, the primary objective of this research is toanalyze Indonesian Islamic scholars’ insights on theMUI fatwa on terrorism. The research employed a fullqualitative method and data documentation throughthe interview method, which was then analyzed descriptively. Solo, a region reported as one of thered zones of radicalism and terrorism in Indonesiawas chosen as the research location.