1. Ma'ruf Amin was born on 11 March 1943 and is an Indonesian politician, Islamic cleric, and lecturer who served as the 13th vice president of Indonesia from 2019 to 2024.
24 Facts About Ma'ruf Amin
1. 2.
Ma'ruf Amin was the chairman of the Ulema Council of Indonesia when he accepted the vice-presidential nomination.
3.
On 9 August 2018, President Joko Widodo announced that Ma'ruf would be his running mate in the 2019 Indonesian presidential election.
4.
Ma'ruf Amin was born during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies to Mohamad Amin and Maimunah.
5.
Ma'ruf Amin first went to primary school in the kecamatan of Kresek.
6.
Ma'ruf Amin continued his studies at Pesantren Tebuireng in Jombang, East Java, an influential Islamic boarding school established by NU founder Hasyim Asy'ari.
7.
Shortly after graduating from college, Ma'ruf Amin carried out dakwah missions in Jakarta.
8.
At that time, NU was still an active political party and Ma'ruf Amin was elected to the Indonesian parliament, the People's Representative Council in the national election held in 1971.
9.
Ma'ruf Amin then rose to be one of the rais, a leader, overseeing the executive leadership of Abdurrahman Wahid.
10.
Ma'ruf Amin returned to active politics and represented the PKB in the national DPR from 1999 to 2004.
11.
Ma'ruf Amin did not seek re-election to the DPR in 2004 and returned to the Indonesian Ulema Council to chair its National Sharia Committee.
12.
Ma'ruf Amin served as an advisor to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his Presidential Advisory Council from 2007 to 2014.
13.
In 2015, Ma'ruf Amin ran for the position of rais 'aam syuriah of the NU, equivalent to chair of the supreme governing council.
14.
Ma'ruf Amin finished in second place after the incumbent Ahmad Mustofa Bisri from Rembang's Pesantren Raudlatuth Thalibin.
15.
Several weeks after his ascendancy to NU's highest post, Ma'ruf Amin was elected to be the chair of MUI, succeeding Muhammadiyah's Din Syamsuddin on 27 August 2015.
16.
Mahfud had been reported to be preparing himself to become Jokowi's vice-presidential candidate but, following a push by several constituent parties of Widodo's governing coalition and influential Islamic figures, Ma'ruf Amin was selected instead.
17.
Ma'ruf Amin was sworn in as vice president on 20 October 2019.
18.
In 2012, Ma'ruf Amin issued a recommendation that Muslims not say Merry Christmas, citing the controversy associated with the saying.
19.
Ma'ruf Amin similarly supported prohibiting Valentine's Day, claiming that its celebration would "only cause a fuss and destroy norms and morality", though he does not believe that every region in Indonesia must ban it.
20.
On Islamic terrorism, Ma'ruf Amin stated that suicide bombers are not martyrs, and that the present time is the era for intellectual instead of physical warfare.
21.
In June 2022, Ma'ruf Amin recommended the Indonesian Ulema Council to issue a fatwa which would permit the use of cannabis for medical purposes.
22.
Ma'ruf Amin was embroiled in part of the controversy surrounding the contentious Jakarta gubernatorial election in 2017.
23.
Ma'ruf Amin accepted Ahok's apology, saying that the matter was resolved.
24.
Ma'ruf Amin previously supported Manchester United, but after a few years of poor performances by the club, Ma'ruf switched his allegiance to its archrival Liverpool in 2019.