A yoga festival being held in Bali is going ahead despite a fatwa being issued by the country’s top Muslim body against the practice.

“The festival has a universal value. It doesn’t belong to any religious teachings,” International Bali-India Yoga Festival spokeswoman Susi Andrini told AFP.

A fatwa was issued in January this year banning Indonesian Muslims from all forms of yoga that involve Hindu religious rituals such as chanting mantras, but performing yoga purely for the physical benefits was however acceptable.

From wiki: a fatwa in the Islamic faith is a religious opinion on Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwa is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be, depending on the status of the scholar.