| Muslims in Indonesia have been banned from doing yoga if they engage in Hindu rituals during the exercise as clerics decided not to ban smoking, the chairman of the country's top Islamic body said on Sunday. About 700 clerics from the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) agreed on the actions at a national meeting, Ma'ruf Amin told AFP by telephone. "The yoga practice that contains religious rituals of Hinduism including the recitation of mantras is 'haram' (forbidden in Islam)," he said. But Amin said Indonesian Muslims were still allowed to do yoga strictly as an exercise. "If Muslims refuse to follow this fatwa, it means that they commit a sin," Amin said. Meanwhile, the clerics decided not to ban smoking for Muslims in a country that is the fifth-largest tobacco market in the world and Southeast Asia's biggest economy, agreeing to ban smoking only in public places, for pregnant women and children. "There was disagreement between clerics over the smoking ban. But we all agreed to decide that it is 'haram' for Muslims to smoke in public space, for pregnant women and children," Amin said. |