Mahfud MD Sprays Said Didu About Islamophobia: If You Want To Comment Read First, You Are Always Wrong!

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD. (Between-Sigid)

JAKARTA - Former Secretary of the Ministry of SOEs Muhammad Said Didu said Islamophobia exists and is growing in Indonesia. He claimed that the prejudice against Muslims was allowed by the government.

Said said this when he commented on the speech of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD at the Indonesian Islamic University (UII), Sleman, Tuesday, July 26.

"It has been refuted that Islamophobia does exist in Indonesia and it seems that the government has allowed it to do so," Said said via his Twitter account, @msaid_didu, Tuesday, July 26.

Mahfud MD then straightened Said's comments. In his speech at UII, Mahfud said Said was wrong in conveying it back to the public.

Said is considered not to have read the full contents of his speech written in the online news but immediately commented.

Mahfud emphasized that there was never in the order of Indonesian life the government's hatred of Islam, aka Islamophobia.

"Pak Didu, if you want to comment, read it first. You are always wrong! I said that if what Islamophobia means is hatred and the government's fear of Islam, then it doesn't exist," Mahfud replied via his Twitter account, @mohmahfudmd.

Mahfud explained that Islam has entered the joints of political, social and cultural life (polsosbud) of the Indonesian people. The opportunity for Muslims to organize is also wide open in the country.

The open access to Muslims in obtaining their rights and fulfilling their religious responsibilities, said Mahfud, made the government's accusation of Islamophobia easy to dismiss by itself.

"Muslims in Indonesia are free to enter various fields of polsosbud and Islamic institutions are growing rapidly," said Mahfud.

Previously, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD emphasized that the Islamophobic narrative was never developed by the government. Mahfud responded to the issue of the phenomenon of Islamophobia appearing in Indonesia which has been widely discussed on social media recently.

"Muslims are free to compete in politics, in government, intellectuals, basically Islam is free. Where is the phobia?" said Mahfud when he was a speaker at the 'National Dialogue of One Century Image of Indonesia' at the UII Sleman campus, Tuesday, July 26.

According to Mahfud, the current government is actually trying to build Indonesia based on the noble values of Islam.

"We are building Indonesia, if for Muslims this was Islamic, Islamic, Islam as noble values. Islam that is open, Islam that is cosmopolitan, considers other people the same. However, matters of worship, yes, myself, You're on your own," he said.