JAKARTA. The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) West Nusa Tenggara has called on the government to avoid biases in handling a blasphemy case currently implicating non-active Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.

“We asked the government not to take sides in settling the blasphemy allegedly committed by Pak Ahok,” MUI West Nusa Tenggara chairman Saiful Muslim said after the council’s coordination meeting with Islamic mass organizations from across the province in Mataram on Monday.

Officials from the West Nusa Tenggara chapter of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and its women’s wing, Muslimat NU, as well as representatives of the province’s Muhammadiyah central executive board and its youth wing, Pemuda Muhammadiyah, attended the meeting. Officials of Nahdlatul Wathan, the biggest Islamic mass organization in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, were also present.

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In the meeting, they criticized Ahok whom they considered had insulted ulemas in his eighth blasphemy hearing on Jan. 31, in which MUI chairman Ma’ruf Amin was present as a witness.

They asked authorities to arrest Ahok and dismiss him from his position as Jakarta governor. They also called on authorities to take measures to stop all forms of criminalization against ulemas in Indonesia.

“We will send these recommendations to the MUI in Jakarta as soon as possible,” said Saiful.

He said the coordination meeting between MUI and Islamic mass organizations in West Nusa Tenggara was conducted to prevent people, especially Muslims, in the province from engaging in reckless deeds in response to the developments of Ahok’s legal process.

The MUI also called on all people in the province to not be easily agitated by hoax news reports in social media and not to carry out any acts that could worsen the image of Islam. (Panca Nugraha)