The President of Indonesia called the actions of the Islamic State terror group “embarrassing” to the religion of Islam, AFP reports.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of Indonesia, the country with the world’s biggest population of Muslims, said, “It is shocking. It is becoming out of control. We do not tolerate it, we forbid ISIS in Indonesia… Indonesia is not an Islamic state. We respect all religions.
Yudhoyono said he would like to see a coalition of Muslim leaders stand against the atrocities being committed by the Islamic State jihadi entity. “This is a new wake-up call to international leaders all over the world, including Islamic leaders,” he said, mentioning that what IS was doing is “embarrassing” and “humiliating” to Islam. “All leaders must review how to combat extremism. Changing paradigms on both sides are needed, how the West perceives Islam and how Islam perceives the West,” the Indonesian president added.
Indonesia accounts for a Muslim population of roughly 225 million, or 90 percent of its population.
Jailed Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and his Al-Qaeda-linked Indonesia terror group Jemaah Islamiyah recently announced its support for the Islamic State. Bashir is known to have been behind a 2002 Bali nightclub bombing that killed over 200 Indonesians.
In early August, Indonesia announced it had banned support for the Islamic State. Beforehand, there had been documented Islamic State-friendly meetings in Jakarta, Solo, Central Java, and Bima. An official said at the time that the Islamic States’ radical ideology is “against Pancasila, the defining principle of Indonesia’s pluralistic and multicultural society. We want to make sure that Indonesia is not a country where you can spread ideas about ISIS or Islamic State.”
Indonesian officials estimate that dozens of their nationals have left the country for Syria and Iraq to wage war on behalf of the Islamic State.
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