Muslim leaders blast proposal to legalise casinos in Indonesia
Abbas said legalising casinos would contradict religious values.
Indonesia.- The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the country’s highest Islamic body, has strongly criticised a proposal to legalise casinos as a means to boost state revenue. Cholil Nafis, leader of the council’s Da’wah and Brotherhood division, said the proposal went again social norms.
In a post on X, Nafis said: “Don’t think of legalising [gambling] to increase state revenue. Let’s work on maximising natural resource exploration. Besides being against the law, gambling also goes against societal norms.”
The legalisation of casinos was proposed by Galih Kartasasmita, a Golkar Party member of the House of Representatives (DPR RI), during a meeting with the Ministry of Finance’s budget office on May 12. Kartasasmita suggested that Indonesia could follow the United Arab Emirates’ model and establish casinos to generate additional non-tax revenue. He compared the economies of the countries, noting that both depend on natural resources to finance government spending.
However, Nafis said that comparisons with foreign examples like the UAE to justify gambling in Indonesia was unwelcome. He called for alternative methods to increase state revenue “so that Indonesia may be full of blessings.”
MUI deputy chairman Anwar Abbas added that legalising gambling in the predominantly Muslim country would contradict religious values and the principles of Indonesia’s state ideology, Pancasila. He said: “If the state allows gambling to flourish, it means the state is also contributing to the destruction of its people’s morals and identity.”
