After massive fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan led to the worst haze on record last year, the Indonesian government are currently on high alert as fires are starting to reappear in troubled hotspots where large scale land burning routinely take place. Now, the country’s highest Islamic clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has entered the fray, declaring a fatwa against setting forest fires and framing the environmental crisis as a moral one.
“Indeed, the problem of forest fires is a moral crisis. People still view nature as an object rather than something that should be protected for the benefit of all living creatures,” said Hayu Prabowo, the head of MUI’s Environmental and Natural Resources Committee, as quoted by Antara.
Hayu said 90 percent of the forest fires causing the haze were directly caused by humans. As such, he said that many approaches were required to tackle the haze problem, including a moral approach.
“Religion must perform a role in cautioning people to refrain from doing damage to others,” he said.
The language of the forest burning fatwa notes that Islamic scripture dictates that any actions which are detrimental to the environment are also detrimental to humanity, and thus haram. It also notes that any actions that facilitate or benefit from forest burning would also be forbidden.
In recent weeks, the battle between the government and those behind the annual fires has become especially heated. In one incident two weeks ago, government environmental inspectors in Riau were held hostage by a mob, believed to be working for a palm oil plantation, who only allowed the inspectors to leave after they had deleted data showing they were behind land burnings in the area.
