Ulema Calls for Restraint over Blasphemous Cartoon

Jakarta (Antara) - Influential ulema Abdullah Gymnastiar, better known as AA Gym, urged Muslims in the country to exercise restraint over the publication of a blasphemous cartoon by The Jakarta Post last Thursday. "Muslims should avoid acts of violence and anarchy, despite their hurt sentiments. Instead, we should file a (police) complaint and make sure that this sort of serious insult never happens again," he stated here on Tuesday. He condemned The Jakarta Post's editorial cartoon, which maligns Islam, noting that it posed a serious insult that had hurt the sentiments of Muslims. "For the sake of Allah (Almighty God), I cannot accept it ...," he said in a statement posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday in response to the controversial editorial cartoon that The Jakarta Post had printed in its July 3 edition. The influential ulema noted that it would not have mattered if the insult had been directed at him personally, but since the Almighty God and Prophet Muhammad had been maligned, the cartoon was unacceptable. Therefore, he said, justice should be brought against those responsible for the publication of the inappropriate cartoon. Abdullah Gymnastiar, however, urged Muslims in the country to exercise restraint and avoid acts of violence and anarchy. Chairman of Muhammadiyah's youth wing Saleh Partaonan Daulay has also condemned The Jakarta Post's editorial cartoon, saying the newspaper editor's apology had failed to soothe the sentiments of Indonesian Muslims. "The apology has not reduced the seriousness of the offense and (our) hurt feelings. This malicious cartoon was likely published with a motive. Moreover, it has been disseminated across the world," he remarked here on Tuesday in response to the publication of the controversial cartoon. In publishing this cartoon, The Jakarta Post has achieved its goals, so the newspaper editor's apology and retraction of the malicious cartoon is "useless," he declared. The controversial editorial cartoon was printed by The Jakarta Post on page seven in its July 3, 2014, edition. The cartoon depicts a black pirate flag being hoisted by an armed man reciting the words "la ilaha illAllah" (an Islamic creed declaring belief in the oneness of God), while standing next to a human skull containing the words of Allah, Rasul, and Muhammad. According to Saleh Partaonan Daulay, the publication of this scandalous cartoon was awkward and should not happen in a country where the majority population is Muslim. "This is an awkward situation. In a country where the majority of people embrace Islam, Islam has been maligned," he noted. In connection with this controversial cartoon, The Jakarta Post editor has published an apology and retraction in the daily newspaper's July 8 edition, claiming that the paper regrets "the error in judgment, which was in no way meant to malign or be disrespectful of any religion." (*) Reported by Dewanto Samodro