Is It True That Only The Indonesian Ulema Council Can Issue Halal Certification? This Is The Answer

Photo via Antara

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) for Sharia and Halal Economics, Sholahuddin Al Aiyub, said that halal regulations in Indonesia are regulated in new laws and regulations that allow collaboration between parties. This new rule also closes the assumption that many parties say that halal certification is monopolized by MUI.

"There is a BPJH (Halal Product Guarantee Agency) as the person in charge, there is a halal inspection agency LPH (Halal Inspection Agency) which used to only have Institute for the Study of Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics (LPPOM) with MUI. Now it can be opened for others, and there is a fatwa commission and the application of the fatwa," he said. as quoted from the MUI website, which was seen by the editorial staff on Thursday, January 6.

Kiai Aiyub, as he is familiarly called, said that these parties then cooperated in terms of the halal certification scheme according to the new legislation.

In this new law, said Kiai Aiyub, MUI cannot monopolize halal certification because the authority has been divided between parties that have been regulated by law.

"In BPJH, the halal inspection agency could be LPPOM, there could be a fatwa commission outside and so on," he added.

Before there was Law Number 33 of 2014 concerning Halal Product Guarantee (JPH) as well as subsequent regulations such as the Ciptaker Omnibuslaw Law and its derivatives, actually MUI also did not carry out a monopoly on halal certification. Kiai Aiyub said that there was an impression of a monopoly from the MUI because no other institution was willing to do it at that time. Even though the position of halal certification at that time was still voluntary, it was not mandatory like the current regulations.

Kiai Aiyub revealed that this was an MUI initiative to protect the beliefs of Muslim believers. In addition, he continued, not many parties have a consensus on this matter.

“At that time there was only MUI, but now that there is the JPH Law and Ciptaker, it cannot be said that MUI is a monopoly. Because in the law it has been regulated that there is a BPJH, LPH and the MUI Fatwa Commission," he concluded.