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Indonesian Clerics Seek to Regulate Facebook

SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) Muslim clerics are seeking ways to regulate online behavior in Indonesia, saying the exploding popularity of social networking sites like Facebook could encourage promiscuity.

Around 700 imams gathered Thursday to consider forbidding their followers from going online to flirt or engage in practices that could inflame lust or encourage extramarital affairs.

Facebook says it now has more than 830,000 users in Indonesia, which is the world's largest Muslim nation.

An edict by the clerics would not have any legal weight. But it could be endorsed by the influential Ulema Council, which recently issued rulings against smoking and yoga. Most devout Muslims adhere to the council's rulings because ignoring a fatwa, or religious decree, is considered a sin.

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