Model Islamic Village: Pamekasan, Eat Java

The East Java branch of the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical body, is planning to develop a “model Islamic village” in the district of Pamekasan in East Java and has already begun talks with the local administration there.. “We want to create a place where the population can live completely according to the dictates of Islam,” Abdul Somad Bukhori, leader of the MUI in East Java told Adnkronos International (AKI).

“The village would be a way to showcase Islamic concepts in politics, economics and social life. We have already spoken to the local administration, but we are still waiting for an official response,” said Bukhori.

Located on the island of Madura in East Java, the argricultural district of Pamekasan has 900,000 inhabitants almost all of whom are Muslim. MUI has not stated which villages in the district have been chosen for the pilot project.

Bukhori explained that the idea did not contradict the Indonesian constitution which although it has a secular basis, does not allow atheism and only recognises five official religions - Islam, Catholism, Protestanism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

“The village would be guided by Sharia, the Islamic law. But this will be allowed in so far as it does not go against the constitution,” he said.

In Indonesia, only the province of Aceh is allowed to apply some Sharia law. Following the process of decentralisation that began after the fall of the former president Suharto in 1998, various provincial administrations have approve local by-laws inspired by Islamic law.

“In Pamekasan there are already laws that are inspired by Sharia,” Bukhori told AKI, adding that the MUI plans that the village chosen to be the “model Islamic village” will be the first in a series of such villages.

“In theory, we hope that all the districts of the province of East Java will have an Islamic village,” he said.

East Java is considered to be the heart of radical Islam in Indonesia. In a survey conducted last August by the Indonesian Survey Circle, only 11.5 percent of Indonesians want an Islamic state similar to those enforced in certain Arab states.

The European model of democracy was chosen by 3.5 percent of those interviewed while 70 percent said they were happy with the model of Pancasila - the founding principles of Indonesia which calls for a common platform for a plural and multi-cultural country.

The vast majority of Indonesia’s estimated 225 million inhabitants are Muslims.