Alfian, Jakarta – As the legislative election is around the corner, the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is dealing with two biggest challenges; maintaining its clean image
Cultural & Religious Events
Displaying 501 - 550 of 1000 Documents
March 24, 2009
March 23, 2009
Pagaralam, South Sumatra – A beauty contest for transvestites has become the Indonesian Ulema Council's (MUI) latest target.
March 21, 2009
Jakarta – Minister of Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni reprimanded religious leaders Friday for using religion to get or discourage votes for certain parties.
March 19, 2009
Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Islamic parties might not be able to secure a significant number of votes in this year's legislative elections as the parties have been abandoned by supporters
March 18, 2009
Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Jakarta – Once considered a threat by some, political Islam is now under threat.
March 16, 2009
Alfian, Jakarta – Muslim-based parties may have seen a significant decline in their popularity, but they can still determine who will win the presidential election, observers say.
March 14, 2009
Jakarta – West Lombok regency has decided forbid members of the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect, who have been living in uncertainty at a refugee center in West Nusa Tenggara for three years, to
March 6, 2009
Andra Wisnu, Jakarta – Islam and yoga share more similarities than some parties would like to admit, a seminar concluded Thursday.
Nivell Rayda – One of the country's most senior Muslim leaders on Thursday threatened to issue an edict banning people from voting for the incumbent president in the upcoming election b
February 28, 2009
Panca Nugraha, Mataram – After living in uncertainty at a refugee center in West Nusa Tenggara for three years, 68 members of the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect have decided to risk returning h
February 23, 2009
Aubrey Belford, Jakarta – With its harrowing scenes of rape and abuse and its rousing calls for equality, a new film on the oppression of women in Islamic societies is courting controve
February 18, 2009
Muninggar Sri Saraswati – A man from the East Java town of Blitar says he will continue to sell "tickets to heaven" for Rp 4 million ($336), despite the Indonesia Council of Ulema, or M
February 17, 2009
Jakarta – The bill on halal product assurance, now being deliberated at the House of Representatives, discriminates against non-Muslims and has serious impacts for people who consume it
February 15, 2009
Ati Nurbaiti, Kuala Lumpur – Equality is necessary and possible in Muslim families, and not just so-called modern women demand such equality, women said Saturday at an international gat
Indonesia – Jaipong artists slammed president of the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) Tifatul Sembiring for his statement, which they said discredited the traditional West J
February 8, 2009
Peter Gelling, Solo – At a small, back-street bookstore here, the young employees, wearing matching green skullcaps and sporting wispy chin beards, stock books with titles like "Waiting
February 7, 2009
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The controversial pornography law has been blasted for targeting cultural heritage, after West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan used it as a legal basis to forbid Ja
Jakarta – A senior cleric has called on Muslims to boycott a new film about Islam's treatment of women, saying it "slanders" the religion.
February 6, 2009
Muninggar Sri Saraswati – Traditional West Javanese jaipongan and bajidoran dancers may be some of the first artists to feel the effects of the stricter antipornography law pushed throu
February 2, 2009
Indonesia is planning a crackdown on illegal polygamous marriages and will ask all Muslim couples to undergo pre-wedding marriage courses, an official says.
Jakarta – Indonesian Islamic hard-liners have called for a ban on international organizations the Rotary Club and the Lions Club, saying they are part of a Zionist conspiracy, reports s
February 1, 2009
Jakarta – Indonesian police were holding the head of a Muslim cult on a preliminary charge of blasphemy after allegations that the group held rituals involving sex orgies and adultery,
January 30, 2009
Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Most managers of mosques in Jakarta embrace a moderate brand of Islam and support the unitary state of Indonesia, a survey released Thursday reveals.
January 29, 2009
Erwida Maulia, Surabaya – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched two education programs and announced he would dramatically increase spending on Islamic boarding schools during a v
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Indonesian Muslims will ignore the recent edict by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the country's highest Islamic authority, to ban vote abstention, as people
January 28, 2009
Febriamy Hutapea – The Indonesian Council of Ulema, or MUI, went too far when it banned Muslims from abstaining from voting, House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono said on Tuesd
January 27, 2009
Jakarta – Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation has attacked a move by the country's highest Islamic authority to impose bans on smoking, practising yoga and voting abstention.
Jakarta – A Christian political leader has criticised a religious edict or fatwa issued by Indonesia's top Islamic body stating that only a Muslim could become president of the country.
January 26, 2009
Nurfika Osman & Sally Piri – Following a busy weekend of deciding whether smoking, yoga, not voting and other issues were right or wrong for the country's Muslims, the Indonesian Co
January 25, 2009
Jakarta – Chief of National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Syamsir Siregar said Sunday that Muslim scholars, Islamic boarding schools and society at large needed to contribute towards nation
Jakarta – Muslims in Indonesia have been banned from doing yoga if they engage in Hindu religious rituals during the exercise, the chairman of the country's top Islamic body said Sunday
January 24, 2009
Olivia Rondonuwu, Padang Panjang – Indonesia's top Islamic body debated on Sunday whether to apply a blanket ban on smoking for Muslims or place a more limited restriction on tobacco us
January 23, 2009
Camelia Pasandaran – The United Development Party, or PPP, is pushing for the formation of a coalition of Islamic parties in order to shift the balance of political power in the country
January 22, 2009
Jakarta – Controversial issues ranging from yoga to abstaining from voting will head the agenda when 700 ulema from throughout the country meet in the West Sumatra town of Padang Panjan
January 16, 2009
Anthony Deutsch, Jakarta – Indonesia Islamic hard-liners enraged by Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip marched to the synagogue's gates chanting, "Go to hell Israel!"
January 14, 2009
Adianto P.
January 13, 2009
Ali Kotarumalos, Jakarta – Ten suspected Islamic militants went on trial Tuesday in an Indonesian court for allegedly killing a Christian schoolteacher and plotting to bomb a cafe.
Panca Nugraha, Mataram – The government will stop donating rice to hundreds of followers of an Islamic sect taking refuge in shelters in West Nusa Tenggara for the past three years, an
January 12, 2009
Sleman – The demarcation between political parties labeled as Islamic and non-Islamic parties is becoming increasingly vague.
January 10, 2009
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Around 100 people from the Islamic Reform Movement sealed off a house Friday afternoon alleged to be the center of a sect preaching alternative Islamic teach
January 8, 2009
Jakarta – Dozens of interfaith leaders and politicians visited the United Nations office in Jakarta on Wednesday to pressure it to put an end to the Israeli strikes against Gaza.
January 6, 2009
Yuli Tri Suwarni and Slamet Susanto, Bandung, Yogyakarta – Religious organizations grouped under the Inter-Religious Forum have called for Indonesians to stop viewing the Israeli-Palest
January 5, 2009
Jakarta – More than 4,000 Indonesians have offered to support Hamas and fight against Israel, a radical Islamist group has told Adnkronos International (AKI).
December 24, 2008
Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Indonesia has suffered major setbacks in upholding religious freedom and tolerance, enshrined in the Constitution, as evident in a series of attacks on plurali
December 22, 2008
Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Thousands of Muslim women from the hardline Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) organization staged a rally Sunday calling for the country to enforce sharia law and
December 21, 2008
Jakarta – The government has asked Muslim clerics to avoid actively participating in politics, as it will keep them from serving their followers and will threaten social unity.
Jakarta – The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), a major Islamic party, is not interested in joining an alliance of Islamic parties, a party executive, Mahfudz Siddiq, said in Banjarmasin,
December 20, 2008
Jakarta – Head of the Intelligence Agency Syamsir Siregar said Saturday the increasing number of religious scholars and leaders entering into politics has caused rift among and neglect
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – The Bandung District Court has convicted and sentenced 17 alleged members of the Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) to between two-and-a-half and three years i
December 19, 2008
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Some Islam-based parties are pushing for a political coalition to win next year's elections, but others are questioning the relevance of such a sectarian allianc