Asks For Halal Haram Wayang To Be Completed, Wamenag Zainut Encourages Speakers To Self -Provide With A Cultural Perspective

Deputy Minister of Religion Zainut Tauhid Sa'adi. (ANTARA/HO-Kemenag)

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Religion (Wamenag) Zainut Tauhid Sa'adi asked that the polemic about the halal-haram wayang should be ended because it has led to an unproductive debate.

"For this reason, it is better to stop the debate over the puppet issue because it has led to an unproductive debate," said Zainut Tauhid in a written statement received in Jakarta, Antara, Wednesday, February 22.

Zainut said that the debate over the halal-haram law has often occurred. For scholars, this debate is natural and does not need to be raised. Instead, differences must be handled wisely, understand each other, be tolerant and should not vilify each other, let alone insult one another.

Nevertheless, he asked religious lecturers to also have a broader perspective in understanding the problem, it is not enough to just approach the law as halal or haram.

Lecturers, he said, must consider social, cultural, local wisdom and other values that grow and develop in a pluralistic and pluralistic society.

"So it does not cause friction and conflict between community groups," he said.

Previously, preacher Khalid Basalamah in a video circulating on social media said that as Muslims who are aware of religious demands, they must make Islam a tradition and culture, not the other way around.

He also said wayang was a relic of the ancestors that could be remembered and as a tradition of the previous people, but not long after, Khalid apologized for his statement through his social media account.

After Khalid apologized, a video emerged of the wayang performance which took place at the Islamic boarding school owned by Miftah Maulana Habiburohman or who is familiarly called Gus Miftah.

In this performance, the dalang plays a play similar to Khalid Basalamah. The puppet show received a response from the public, who regretted that the response was not elegant. Gus Miftah also apologized for the wayang performance.