Islamic state, your head.

Thanks to a heads-up from Screenshots, here's an article from the Jakarta Post where a 40-million strong Muslim organisation in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation - unreservedly shoots down the argument that Islam demands that Muslims live in Islamic states.

The idea of the Caliphate, or Islamic state, has no basis in the Koran or the Hadiths.

The influential Bathsul Masail (problem deliberation) commission of the East Java chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), made the statement after thoroughly reviewing the Koran and Hadith, along with other texts, including Attasyri' al-Jina'i Al Islami, al-Qoish al-Hami' al-Asyarqi Jam'il Jawami', Ad Din Watdaulah watadbikis Syari'ah, and al-fiqkul Islami.

While the discourse on an Islamic state become increasingly popular among the nation's intellectuals and the general public, it found no nash (argument and reasoning) in the books that provided the idea of an Islamic state with a textual ground. It said the books also said nothing about an Islamic state being a necessity.

"The Khilafah state therefore is a form of ijtihadiyyah (interpretation)."

Consequently, any effort to replace the country's Unitary State system with an Islamic one was prohibited.

I wonder if PAS, Najib, Pak Lah and Tun M read the Jakarta Post. It'll be interesting to get reactions from these champions of the [prohibited] Islamic state.