Muslims from Pakistan to Indonesia said they were outraged, while others simply groaned, on hearing would-be presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Guardian
Yenny Wahid, daughter of the former Indonesia president and Islamic activist, told the Guardian: “I think the perspective of people here in Indonesia is that they see Donald Trump as a loser. We don’t really take his comments seriously.”
She said: “The majority of Muslims in Indonesia are arch enemies of Isis so if Trump’s intention is to stop Isis, then he should have asked for our help, not just put us in the same corner.
“It shows how ignorant Donald Trump is to the state of the world.”
Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir said his government would not comment on election campaigns in other countries but added that “as the country with the biggest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia affirms that Islam teaches peace and tolerance”.
He told Reuters: “Acts of terror do not have any relation with any religion or country or race.” More than one in 10 of the world’s Muslims live in the country of 250 million.
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Trump has already attracted controversy in Indonesia after the country’s House of Representatives speaker, Setya Novanto, made an official visit to the US this September where he met Trump.
“Do they like me in Indonesia?” Trump asked the smiling speaker during a press conference. “Yes, highly,” Setya answered, in comments that annoyed many Indonesians.
The associate editor of Rolling Stone Indonesia, Hasief Ardiasyah, mocked him on Twitter on Tuesday.
Trump has global business interests that could be affected by the statement. Indonesia investment firm MNC is due to partner with Trump Hotels Collection to build a resort and a golf course in west Java, according to the Jakarta Post. Advertisement
Trump and MNC have already signed a separate deal to run a luxury resort in Bali.
In neighbouring Malaysia, also a country with a Muslim majority, Trump’s comments were top news on major websites.
A leading contender to become the Republican party’s nominee for US presidential candidate, Trump has called for a “total and complete shutdown” of the country’s borders to Muslims and said there was hatred among Muslims around the world towards Americans that warranted the ban.
Members of the Islamic faith in Europe and the US have suffered verbal and physical attacks from those who accuse them of sympathising with Isis, the terror group controlling areas of Syria and Iraq which has been widely condemned by key figures from the Islamic world.
The statement on “preventing Muslim immigration” has also drawn criticism in the US, including the from the White House. Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said Trump was “unhinged”.
Trump spoke in the wake of a California shooting spree by two Muslims who the Federal Bureau of Investigation said had been radicalised.
“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” the billionaire said.
Tahir Ashrafi, the head of the Ulema Council, Pakistan’s biggest council of Muslim clerics, said Trump’s comments promoted violence.
“If some Muslim leader says there is a war between Christians and Muslims, we condemn him. So why should we not condemn an American if he says that?
“Islamic State is a problem of Syria, not religion. If you solve the Syria issue, 75% of the [Isis] problem will be solved.”
