Indian Clerics Enter Muslim Religion And Yoga Debate

Even as I’m working on an article about the difference between spirituality and religion, things continue to develop in the religion and yoga story of Muslim fatwas on yoga.

Indian Muslim clerics have joined the ongoing conflict that has seen Malaysian and Indonesian fatwas against Muslims practicing yoga.

The word from the Indian seminaries is  that yoga doesn’t contradict Islam and in fact they point to many similarities between the two. These more tolerant views are helping many Muslims who practise yoga resolve their dilemma in the face of the bans on certain elements of the practice.

It is also helpful to some Islamic scholars in Indonesia who agree. The feeling of many Indonesians is the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), which issued the fatwa against the ‘Hindu’ elements of yoga in late January, does not represent the majority of the Indonesian Muslim opinion.

Speaking in a debate at the first weeklong International Bali-India Yoga Festival last week Salman Harun, director of the Centre of Multifaith Education in Jakarta said better understanding of the art of yoga would ensure that such sever steps are not taken in future.

Also speaking at the festival Stefan Danerek, a scholar who has studied Islam and has also been practicing yoga for the past few months, went on to draw parallels between Islam and yoga claiming “The ’salaat’,  (the ritualistic beginning of the Islamic prayer), and asanas are very similar. He said the focused concentration  required, and even the manner of praying in Islam – is similar to yoga. From this he said one can draw a lot of parallels between the two,”

Personally I don’t know about that and it sounds like a desire to find similarities rather than them being apparent. Danerek ended the debate on an expansive note “Yoga is halal. It is not bound by religious and other boundaries. And just like the holy Koran teaches, it spreads the message of unity and peace”.

I say power to that thought. With a focus on the message of unity and peace that is common to all major religions we would live in a very different world with plenty of room for yoga and religion.

Stumble This Post

Welcome back! Keep updated - Subscribe to my RSS feed & Scroll Down to leave a Comment

Technorati Tags: Yoga & Religion

Related posts:

1. Swami ‘Baba’ Ramdev Claims Homosexuality Can Be “cured” By Yoga The claims that yoga can cure homosexuality were made...
2. Vipassana Meditation In Indian Prisons This is a powerful film showing the transformational effects ...
3. The Power Of Yoga—for Kids Yoga is becoming a powerful tool in our goal...