Ulamak Indonesia haramkan yoga dan kisah Obama

Indonesia’s Muslims will be banned from doing some kinds of yoga and from smoking in public places, the chairman of the country’s top Islamic body said on Sunday (25 Jan, 2009).

The 700 clerics attending a national meeting in West Sumatra province agreed to permit yoga for exercise as long as Muslims do not chant the mantras or perform Hindu religious rituals, chairman Maaruf Amin told AFP by telephone.

"The yoga practice that contains religious rituals of Hinduism including the recitation of mantras is 'haram' (forbidden in Islam). Muslims should not practice other religious rituals as it will erode and weaken their Islamic faith. If it is purely a physical exercise or sport, it is not considered as 'haram,'" he said.

Officially secular Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population. Religious edicts issued by the MUI are not legally binding on Muslims but it is considered sinful to ignore them.

"If Muslims refuse to follow this clerics' fatwa, it means that they commit a sin," Amin said.

Praised be to Allah!

Other good news is this, as reported by Malaysiakini: “The climate moves followed Obama's moves last week to engineer a sharp change of direction in US several key national security, foreign and social policies.”

Lanjutan dari itu, mStar melaporkan dalam temu bual yang pertama dengan stesen televisyen Al Arabiya sejak melangkah ke White House minggu lalu, Presiden Barack Obama menekankan soal ikatan peribadinya dengan dunia Islam dan harapan untuk melihat kewujudan sebuah negara Palestin.

"Saya mempunyai keluarga saya yang beragama Islam. Saya pernah tinggal di negara-negara Islam," kata Obama yang merupakan Presiden yang ke-44 Amerika Syarikat (AS).

Beliau mengangkat sumpah pada 20 Januari lalu menggantikan Presiden George W. Bush, yang dilihat oleh banyak pihak sebagai 'musuh' dan menjalin hubungan dingin dengan dunia Islam.

(Buku Obama: Antara Islam, Israel & Amerika diterbitkan oleh PTS Publications & Distributors Sdn. Bhd. Saya masih belum membacanya. Setahu saya PTS menerbitkan banyak buku bermutu, tetapi ada juga pengecualian. Jadi nasihat saya, teliti dahulu sebelum membeli.)

*** Saya menyediakan perkhidmatan katering untuk pelbagai majlis. Menu yang pelbagai boleh disediakan, masakan Melayu, resepi Cina & India halal serta makanan ala-barat. Sila rujuk blog katering di www.themakan.net