TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Muchsin Alatas, the chairman of hard-line Muslim group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), said interrupting preachers during Friday prayers at mosques—a notion recently brought up by a cleric from the country’s largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama—was uncivilized.
“Such interuptions would be uncivilized, whereas the ambience during Friday prayers should be peaceful and filled with dzikir (Islamic form of chanting),” he told Tempo on Thursday, January 8, 2014.
Muchsin said it would be better if those who disagreed about the substance of the preaching conveyed their objection to the preachers after the prayers were concluded. He added there had been no restriction for a preacher when delivering his preaching at mosques.
Earlier, Imam Maliki from Nahdlatul Ulama said it was okay for those who attended Friday prayers at mosques to interrupt preachers who spoke ill of other groups in their preaching.
Muchsin, however, insisted that nowhere in the hadits (Prophet Muhammad’s traditional collection of stories on his deeds and words) nor the Koran was it mentioned that Muslims were allowed to interrupt Friday prayers’ preachers. “There is no such regulation,” he said.
DEWI SUCI RAHAYU
