Nurfika Osman – Roses, chocolates and candlelight dinner may be OK after all.

The Indonesia Council of Ulema has made its annual – and regularly ignored – call for Muslims to avoid celebrating Saint Valentine's Day on Monday.

Rahmat, Makassar – A district chapter of the Indonesian Council of Ulema in South Sulawesi has issued an edict declaring a religious group a deviant Islamic sect, and called for a polic

Tifa Asrianti, Jakarta – Liberal and moderate Muslim scholars expressed concern that their voices were being drowned out as the public and mainstream media were more inclined to listen

Elisabeth Oktofani, Ulma Haryanto & Fitri R.

Olivia Rondonuwu, Jakarta – Opulent Christmas decorations at shopping malls in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, could incite anger among non-Christians, the country's

Arlina Arshad, Indonesia – To most people, Ahmad Mustofa Bisri is an influential Muslim cleric and a respected figure from the country's biggest Islamic organization, the moderate Nahdl

Indonesia – An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced a United States retiree to five months in jail for blasphemy for pulling the plug on a mosque's loudspeaker during a prayer readin

Marcel Thee – Embedded within Indonesia's constitution are the following two lines: "all persons have the right to worship according to their own religion or belief" and "the nation is

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – While students of Islamic universities in Indonesia are embracing liberalism, their counterparts in science schools feel apparently more appeal to fundamentalis

Jakarta – An Indonesian court sentenced a wealthy Muslim cleric to four years in prison on Wednesday for having sex with a 12-year-old girl he took as his unofficial wife.

Fitri R., Jakarta – Witnesses testifying in the blasphemy trial of an American national on Monday said he would never have insulted Islam, and that the case had been blown out of propor

Fitri, Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara – Two villagers on Monday told the Praya District Court in Central Lombok that American national Gregory Lloyd Luke, 64, deserved to remain beh

Jakarta – The Indonesia Ulema Council said on Wednesday that it opposed France's ban on full-face veils.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Islamic Propagation Institute (LDII) and the Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI) have called on Muslims in the country to launch a protest against an incident which

Jakarta – Two days after the Idul Fitri celebration traffic has started to gain steam, as many holiday travelers began leaving their hometowns on their way back to Jakarta and other maj

Niniek Karmini, Jakarta – Millions of Indonesians crammed into trains, ferries and in greater numbers than ever, motorcycles, as they poured out of major cities to return to their villa

Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta – Warnings to improve televisions stations' programing during the fasting month seem to have fallen on deaf ears as violence, obscenity and mysticism continue to

Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said Monday that the Jamaah Ahmadiyah faith – who claim to be Muslim – had to be broken up, as followers violated regulations and we

Fitri, Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara – The ubiquitous prayers broadcast from mosques nationwide during Ramadan usually fade into the background for those not inclined to join in them.

Rendi A.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – West Java is among the provinces that worries critics regarding several religiously related regulations – but concerns over the economy and diversity has led

Lisa Siregar – On a Sunday at about 10 p.m., a group of women wearing jilbabs are gathered in one corner of Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta after tarawih, a series of nightly prayers during

Ridwan Max Sijabat – Indonesia seems far removed from Afghanistan, where the Taliban recently stoned to death a couple that had eloped after a long hiatus in applying the sharia punishm

Dessy Sagita & Anita Rachman, Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's biggest Islamic organization with as many as 30 million members, has drawn a mostly negative response from rel

Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – Indonesia's two main Muslim organizations decreed on Wednesday that corrupt officials were "infidels," or a person without faith.

Jakarta – Amid criticism of the city authorities' friendly gestures towards Muslim hard-line groups, Governor Fauzi Bowo guaranteed Thursday the freedom to worship in Jakarta as part of

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) defended a recently issued fatwa (edict) declaring two brands of meningitis vaccine halal, dismissing experts' claim

Tangguh, Lombok – For four years and five months, 33 Ahmadiyah families have been staying at the Transito shelter in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, after having been driven from their hom

Panca Nugraha, Mataram – Sixth grader Muhyidin Sayid Ahmad returned home from school wearing a sad face.

Norimitsu Onishi, Indonesia – As the nation with the world's largest number of Muslims, Indonesia every year sends the most pilgrims to Mecca by far.

Purwakarta, West Java – Clerics of the Indonesian Ulema Forum staged a mass demonstration outside the local administration's office on Friday, demanding that they remove the district's

Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta – While television stations prepare to roll out their usual Ramadan lineups of programs laden with piety, the broadcast watchdog and a council of Islamic clerics

Lima, Lampung – There is no such thing as bad publicity – even for a form of coffee bean excreted by a civet cat for human consumption.

Presi Mandari, Jakarta – An Indonesian lawmaker on Wednesday accused the security forces of secretly supporting Islamist vigilantes as a kind of paramilitary force to intimidate opponen

Jakarta, Jakarta – Indonesia's educational and civil registration systems violate the constitutional right to freedom of religion of people who follow faiths not recognized by the gover

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ismira lutfia, Indonesia – Embattled purveyors of "infotainment," or gossip, shows could be dealt another blow in the wake of a ban imposed by Muslim cler

Jakarta – Charismatic Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) cleric Sahal Mahfudh has been re-elected chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), which wrapped up its national congress Wednesday with

Nurfika Osman, Indonesia – Rolling out laws based on Islamic values would address the "degradation of morality among Indonesia's students," a leader of the country's highest Islamic aut

Nurfika Osman & Lisa Siregar – The country's highest Islamic authority declared infotainment as forbidden to Muslims in one of seven fatwa, or religious edicts, issued on Tuesday.

Camelia Pasandaran & Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta – The nation's highest authority on Islamic law is expected to use its national congress this week to issue several new fatwas, including

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – Indonesia is experiencing growing Islamization both at national and regional levels with the enactment of laws and regulations many believe are inspire

Dessy Sagita, Indonesia – In the face of a suggestion by the nation's main Muslim organizations that a fatwa, or religious edict, be placed against the lauded luwak coffee, the Indonesi

Jakarta – International news agencies and newspapers around the world have pounced on an embarrassing mistake by the Indonesian Ulema Council, which was forced to admit last week that i

Two of Indonesia's main Muslim organizations are to meet to decide whether or not to issue a fatwa against "kopi luwak," a famed and highly prized coffee bean that has passed through th

Arientha Primanita, Ulma Haryanto & Zaky Pawas – Peace is a word defined differently by certain religious communities and the Bogor administration, according to controversial Islami

Jakarta – People in the world's most populous Muslim nation have been facing Africa – not Mecca – while praying.

The chief of Nahdlatul Ulama organization, or NU, has called on its members not to conduct sweepings on entertainment venues throughout Indonesia ahead of the Islamic fasting month.

Pontianak, West Kalimantan – The number of Chinese Muslims in Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta, Surabaya and Semarang, has experienced rapid growth, a Chinese Muslim leader said.

Dessy Sagita – The country's highest Islamic authority is refusing to take the blame for issuing an incorrect edict in March, which stipulated that worshipers had to face westward in or