{"id":7429,"date":"2009-01-29T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2009\/01\/29\/controversy-over-yoga-ban-in-indonesia-continues\/"},"modified":"2009-01-29T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-29T12:00:00","slug":"controversy-over-yoga-ban-in-indonesia-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2009\/01\/29\/controversy-over-yoga-ban-in-indonesia-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversy Over Yoga Ban in Indonesia Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"source\"><a HREF=\"http:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/Cities\/Namaz_form_of_yoga_Deoband_cleric\/articleshow\/4042932.cms\">timesofindia.indiatimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"summary\">NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 29, 2009: Performing yoga is not un-Islamic&#8211; indeed, offering namaz, the Islamic prayer is also a form of the practice yoga, according to Adil Siddiqui, spokesperson of Darul Uloom Deoband, India&#8217;s leading Islamic seminary.<\/p>\n<p>Dismissing the recent controversy over the issue, Siddiqui said Wednesday that &#8220;Yoga is not a problem in Islam, but giving a religious color to it is wrong. &#8230; The purpose of yoga is simple, that is to maintain good health; and it can always be performed for the sake of exercise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He pointed out that Islam gives health a major priority.  &#8220;If you observe closely, &#8216;namaz&#8217;, which every Muslim is expected to perform five times a day, is itself a sort of yoga and plays an important role in keeping a person healthy,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Malaysia&#8217;s top Islamic body, the National Fatwa Council, imposed a ban last year on the performance of yoga by Muslims, on the grounds that it combines elements of physical exercise and chanting of religious mantras. Earlier this week, Indonesia&#8217;s top Islamic body also passed an edict banning Muslims from practicing yoga, citing concerns it would corrupt their faith.<\/p>\n<p>[HPI note:  As is common in Western countries, the word &#8220;yoga&#8221; is used here to mean hatha yoga and does not refer to the other seven branches of yoga. Many Westerners practice hatha yoga simply as a form of physical exercise, to enhance flexibility and general health.]<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>timesofindia.indiatimes.com NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 29, 2009: Performing yoga is not un-Islamic&#8211; indeed, offering namaz, the Islamic prayer is also,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}