MUI Edict an Obstacle
The government’s efforts to persuade the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to release a halal (permissible by Islamic law) fatwa (edict) for the AstraZeneca vaccine have been unsuccessful. Amid lobbying, MUI officials asked to be made commissioners at state-owned enterprises. The government then enlisted religious organizations in the regions so that a halal edict can be issued for the vaccine. With the vaccine’s expiration date approaching, the government is currently mapping regions more amenable to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Devy Ernis
March 22, 2021
ON Monday afternoon, March 8, only several hours before 1.113 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Indonesia, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin visited the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) in Jalan Proklamasi, Menteng, Central Jakarta. The minister was accompanied by Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) Chair, Penny Kusumastuti Lukito; Chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Doni Monardo; President of Bio Farma,
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