Thousands of Muslim protesters gathered at the heavily-guarded French embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, to rail against French president Macron for defending people’s right to caricature the Islamic prophet.
Demonstrators in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority state carried banners depicting President Macron as a horned demon alongside slogans such as ‘Macron Is a Satan Not a Human’ and made reference to Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine which was targeted by Islamist gunmen for daring to publish likenesses of their prophet in 2015.
A Muslim protester displays a poster during a protest against French President Emmanuel Macron outside the French embassy in Jakarta on November 2, 2020. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
Muslim offer congregational prayers as a banner condemning French President Emmanuel Macron is seen on the side of a truck during a protest outside the French embassy in Jakarta on November 2, 2020. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
Muslim offer congregational prayers as a banner condemning French President Emmanuel Macron is seen on the side of a truck during a protest outside the French embassy in Jakarta on November 2, 2020. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
Other protesters carried posters with slogans such as “Macron Is Devil” [sic], “Macron Go to Hell”, and “Macron Muslim Enemy” — all in English, and so likely intended to send a message internationally, and not to the French or fellow Indonesians.
Many featured images of Macron with a bootprint on his face, similar to an image of the French president uploaded to Instagram by UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov, of Dagestan, alongside the message “May the Almighty disfigure the face of this scum and all his followers, who, under the slogan of freedom of speech, offend the feelings of more than one and a half billion Muslim believers. May the Almighty humiliate them in this life, and in the next. Allah is quick in calculation and you will see it.”
A similar image was burnt outside the French embassy in London last week at an anti-Macron protest.
Muslim protesters hold posters condemning French President Emmanuel Macron during a rally outside the France Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Indonesian Muslims marched to the heavily guarded France Embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Monday to protest against Macron and his staunch support of secular laws that deem caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad as protected speech. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Muslim protesters attend a protest against French President Emmanuel Macron outside the French embassy in Jakarta on November 2, 2020. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
Indonesian Muslims protesters hold posters condemning French President Emmanuel Macron during an anti-France rally outside the France embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Indonesian Muslims marched to the heavily guarded France Embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Monday to protest France’s president and his staunch support of secular laws that deem caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad as protected speech.(AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
An Indonesian Muslims protester kicks a defaced poster of French President Emmanuel Macron during an anti-France rally outside the French embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Indonesian Muslims marched to the heavily guarded France Embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Monday to protest France’s president and his staunch support of secular laws that deem caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad as protected speech.(AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
An Indonesian Muslim protester kicks a defaced poster of French President Emmanuel Macron during an anti-France rally outside the French embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Indonesian Muslims marched to the heavily guarded France Embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Monday to protest France’s president and his staunch support of secular laws that deem caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad as protected speech.(AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
While Indonesia is considered moderate by the standards of many Muslim-majority countries, hardline views are by no means alien to its islands, with Dr Meiwita Budiharsana University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Public Health noting that “Around 60 million women, or half of the women in Indonesia, are estimated to have undergone FGM”, for example.
While rites of Female Genital Mutilation predate Islam and are not unknown beyond the Islamic world, with some questioning whether it should really be tied to the Middle Eastern religion, it has had unusually strong support from many powerful Islamic religious authorities in south-east Asia, including the Indonesian Ulema Council and Malaysia’s National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs.
Muslim protesters kick a banner showing a caricacure of French President Emmanuel Macron outside the French embassy in Jakarta on November 2, 2020. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
Muslim protesters kick a banner showing a caricacure of French President Emmanuel Macron outside the French embassy in Jakarta on November 2, 2020. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
Indonesia is not the only country where protests have been held against France in general and the French president in the wake of his remarks defending people’s right to caricature Mohammed, which were issued after a Chechen refugee publicly beheaded a schoolteacher, Samuel Paty, who had shown images from Charlie Hebdo in class during a lesson on freedom of expression.
Muslim protesters have also burned and trampled French flags and likenesses of President Macron in countries such as Pakistan — and indeed in Western countries such as Britain, where the Frenchman was burned in effigy at an unlawful protest outside the French embassy in London, and Cyprus, where dozens of protesters attacked that country’s French embassy and fought with police.
Muslim men burn a portrait of French President Emmanuel Macron during a protest outside the France Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Indonesian Muslims marched to the heavily guarded France Embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Monday to protest against Macron and his staunch support of secular laws that deem caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad as protected speech. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Muslims protestors burn posters featuring French President Emmanuel Macron during a protest outside the French embassy in Jakarta on November 2, 2020. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
Muslim protesters attend a protest against French President Emmanuel Macron outside the French embassy in Jakarta on November 2, 2020. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
Macron, for his part, has stuck to his guns on his support for freedom of expression and his efforts to tackle “Islamist separatism”, at least for now.
“I’m telling you very clearly: not our values! We believe in the Enlightenment, and women have the same rights as men. It is vital. And so, I will never, never, never accept an association, even if it would be in the name of a religion, that would promote [the idea that] a little girl is not the equivalent of a little boy; she will not be given the same education, she will not be given the same opportunities — because it’s not our values,” he told the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera news network at the weekend.
“People who think like that, let them do it somewhere else, but not on French soil.”
Muslim protesters wearing army look outfits stand guard while they offer prayers during a protest against French President Emmanuel Macron outside the French embassy in Jakarta on November 2, 2020. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)