Positivisation of MUI Fatwa: From Morally Binding to Legally Binding ( Case Study MUI Fatwa Against Madurese Shi'ite in Sampang, Madura)

Abstract. The Council of Indonesian Muslim Scholar (MUI) has strategic position in Indonesia. It becomes the big umbrella of Islamic Mass Organiation in Indonesia. MUI was designed by Soeharto’s era as the media of the communication between Government and Ulama in one side but in other side to support the policy of the government in Soeharto Era. This paper wants to examine and explore related to the role of MUI in the process of positivisation of fatwa in Indonesia. Indonesia is not an Islamic country but also not a secular country, but the presence of MUI as a ”semi-government institution” is enough to give color to the process of forming rules and public policies in Indonesia. The MUI fatwa often contains an appeal to the central and regional governments to make policies in accordance with the main content of the fatwa. For example, the issuance of East Java Governor Regulation Number 55 of 2021 is part of responding to the East Java MUI fatwa related to Shia heresy. This shows that the Fatwa has structurally played a strategic role in the production of state policies both at the central and regional levels. This paper is part of a qualitative research using a type of library research, where one of the samples is the East Java MUI Fatwa regarding the Shia deviant fatwa which was later accommodated into East Java Governor Regulation number 55 of 2012. This paper proposes at least two questions important in this paper: first, why is a fatwa produced by MUI? What is the background, as well as the second question: How far is the influence of the fatwa in the process of forming public policies or government regulations that bind its citizens. To answer this problem, this paper uses Fairclough’s theory of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). This theory wants to help uncover the process of publishing, using, and distributing fatwas and public policies, as well as their discourse and practice. This paper wants to reveal how the process of producing a fatwa from a religious instrument is transformed into a state instrument which I call ”fatwa positivization.” The positivization of a fatwa is a process of transformation from a fatwa with moral power to a binding and coercive legal force. From here, it can be explored how the role of the MUI in the process of positivizing Islamic law in Indonesia through the issued fatwas. Keywords: MUI; Fatwa; Positivisation of Islamic La