SBY's Message To The President Of France: Stop Making Caricatures Of The Prophet Muhammad

JAKARTA - The Sixth President of the Republic of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has spoken about the polemic of creating caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that led to violence in France.

SBY regretted the statement by French President Emmanuel Macron who argued that freedom is absolute and cannot be hindered by anyone, including the freedom to create caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

In his YouTube account, SBY advised Macron to stop his citizens from creating caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Because, this is considered insulting the Muslim community.

"Stop making caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Once again, stop it. This action deeply injures, insults, harasses and even challenges Muslims all over the world. This is really serious," said SBY in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's YouTube account uploaded on Sunday, November 1.

SBY admits that as a Muslim, he is open-minded to people of any religion. However, regarding the relations between the West and the Islamic world, SBY felt that state leaders needed to build bridges or dialogue between Islam and the West.

"Not only talking to each other, but also listening to each other so that each other understands each other. In this way I am sure that there will be more mutual respect and tolerance so that the clash between beliefs and identities does not escalate," said SBY.

Moreover, said SBY, the space for expressing freedom of opinion for the western world is very wide without having to caricature the Prophet Muhammad. Therefore, SBY asked Macron to become a wiser and wiser leader.

"Please balance your views and beliefs, with the views and beliefs of other leaders who are different. Remember, all nations have the right to live and live on this earth. Everything is equal. Nobody should monopolize the truth and always dictate his views," he explained.

As is known, French President Emmanuel Macron called Islam a religion that is in crisis and promised to fight Islamic separatism.

Macron's statement was made due to the stabbing incident of an early high school teacher. The incident was motivated by the teacher's activity showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his students in class when they discussed freedom of opinion.

As a result of Macron's statement, various criticisms then emerged, including from Arab countries. In fact, a number of trade associations in these countries boycotted products from France.