It’s been nearly a week since US President Donald Trump made his controversial announcement that the United States would officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but anger over his decision seems not to have subsided one iota in much of the Muslim world, including Indonesia.
In fact, it seems to be growing, with the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation’s highlest Islamic clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), announcing that it would not only support yet another large scale protest taking place this Sunday in Jakarta (following near-daily protests here in front of the US Embassy), but also warning that the peaceful protests may transform into an economic boycott of American products should Trump not head them.
“We hope that, with this peaceful action, Donald Trump will change his policy,” said MUI deputy secretary general Amirsyah as quoted by CNN Indonesia today. But he added, “If he does not hear our voices, we will probably boycott American products.”
Although Trump’s Jerusalem decision has been roundly denounced by just about every major Indonesian politician, and a few political parties and Islamist hardliner groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) have already called for boycotts of American products, there has not yet been much traction among mainstream Muslim voices calling for Indonesians to try and get the US president to rethink his choice by attacking America at an economic level.
But MUI is a hugely influential group (their fatwa declaring that former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama had committed blasphemy legitimized hardliner efforts to get him imprisoned for insulting Islam) and their official endorsement of a boycott on America products could lead to it seriously being considered.
But even then, a large-scale national boycott of American products seems as unlikely as it does unfeasible. We’re surprised the suggestion of the Family of Indonesian Muslim Students (KB PII) organization — that the country expel or boycott Trump’s business interests in Indonesia (of which he has quite a few) — has not gotten more traction. But then, he is the first American president to have so many personal business interests (because in the past they’ve always given them up when they take the office in order to avoid conflicts of interests, but of course Trump is, well, a very “special” president) so we aren’t that surprised more Indonesians haven’t thought of it as an option.
