JAKARTA - Muslim religious scholars from Indonesia and Malaysia are considering organising a meeting of Southeast Asian ulamas to deal with religious problems in the region, a report said here today.

"Hopefully, Southeast Asian ulamas (religious scholars) will be able to prevent the Muslim faith from being influenced by apostate teachings," the chairman of Indonesia's highest authority on Islam, the Council of Indonesian Ulema (MUI), H Amidhan said according to the state Antara news agency.

He noted that teachings of "deviant" Islamic sects were flourishing in Southeast Asia, including Ahmadiyah and Islam Jemaah in Indonesia, and Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia in Malaysia.

The government of Indonesia has long banned the Ahmadiyah and Islam Jemaah sects, but both are still flourishing in isolated areas.

Members of the two sects were the targets of attacks on the Indonesian island of Lombok, east of Bali, last month which left scores of buildings torched or destroyed.

School controversy

The MUI, Amidhan said, was also studying whether the Al Zaitun Islamic boarding school in the West Java town of Indramayu had taught teachings which deviated from Islam.

The school has been at the centre of a controversy with members of the public accusing it of teaching a deviant Islam. Malaysia has stopped sending its citizens to study at Al Zaitun pending an MUI clarification, Amidhan said.

Meanwhile, the chief of the MUI's committee for edicts, Ma'rum Amin, was also quoted by Antara as airing hope that a meeting of Southeast Asian ulamas would discuss procedures for issuing fatwas (religious decrees).

He said the meeting needed to issue edicts on halal food, syariah (Islamic) banking and insurance companies.

In view of new problems related to Islamic law, he deemed it necessary to revive such a meeting which was last organized in 1992. AFP