East Java MUI Decries Miss World Plans
Conservative Islamic groups continue to pile on beauty pageant
Miss Indonesia Ines Putri Tjiptadi parades during the Miss World 2012 final ceremony at the Dongsheng stadium in the inner Mongolian city of Ordos on August 18, 2012. (AFP Photo/Ed Jones)
Another regional chapter of the country's highest Islamic authority has taken issue with the hosting of the Miss World pageant in Bogor later this year, adding to the outcry by conservatives against the event.
The East Java branch of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) said on Sunday that it would send a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to demand that the beauty pageant, to be held at the Sentul International Convention Center on Sept. 28, be scrapped.
"Indonesia shouldn't have anything to do with such an event," Abdusommad Bukhori, the provincial MUI chief, said as quoted by Detik.com.
"We want to advise the president not to allow it. The MUI's rejection [of the pageant] has been echoed by other Islamic organizations in East Java."
He argued that although the pageant would take place in West Java, the East Java MUI still felt compelled to speak out against it.
"Indonesia is a Muslim country [sic], and the event is meant to be held in Bogor, which has a lot of Islamic schools that have already voiced their rejection of it," Abdusommad said.
"We have a hard time nurturing Muslims to become better people, and now everything's being mixed up."
He also hinted at a violent response to the event if the organizers proceeded to host it in Bogor.
"We want to build a country of morals, not one of hedonism," he said.
"Don't let there be conflict arising from this. End it now while there's still time."
The East Java MUI's call echoes that by the West Java chapter of the clerical council, which earlier this month claimed that the pageant would "certainly hurt and sully Indonesia's Muslim community."
Mukri Aji, the provincial MUI chairman, said the beauty contest was just an excuse to flaunt body parts that should remain covered, adding that it was also impolite and against local religious norms.
The Bogor chapter of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a hard-line Islamic group, also voiced its opposition to the pageant and called for it to be moved elsewhere.
West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan, who enjoys strong backing from the province's conservative Islamic groups, has countered that the show should go ahead, as long as there is no bikini category.
"This Miss World event is different with other similar events as during the grand final [the finalists] won't wear a bikini," Ahmad said in early April as quoted by Antaranews.com.
"God willing, it will be more polite."
In 2007, an Islamic fundamentalist group in Bandung forced a Miss Universe pageant winner to call off a charity event there. The protesters argued that the beauty queen, Japanese national Riyo Mori, went "against Shariah" law and was a "symbol of the world's adultery and pornography."
An organizer of the charity event said that Mori suffered "psychological stress following a strong protest and decided to stay in her hotel" where the event was supposed to take place.
Liliana Tanoesoedibjo, the chairwoman of the Miss Indonesia organization, said it had taken three years of intense lobbying to convince the Miss World management to choose Indonesia as a host.
While the grand final will take place in Sentul, participants will also take part in activities around Jakarta and Bali.
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