Indonesians hit back at cleric’s fatwa with Erdoğan selfie

ISTANBUL

One of the photos shared during the campaign features a selfie Indonesian Parliament Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah took with Erdoğan on Dec. 22, 2014.

Hundreds of Indonesian social media users have mocked a cleric who claimed selfie photographs are forbidden by Islam in a twitter campaign that featured a shot of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Indonesian cleric Felix Siauw, who has over a million twitter followers, had posted a series of tweets last week, explaining why selfies should be avoided, while reserving most of his exasperation for women. 

“These days many Muslim women take selfies without shame. There are usually nine frames in one photo with facial poses that are just – My Goodness – where’s the purity in women?” Siauw had said.

Since Siauw’s tweets, hundreds of Indonesians, mostly women, have posted their selfies in defiance using the hashtag #Selfie4Siauw. One of the photos shared during the campaign features a selfie Indonesian Parliament Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah took with Erdoğan on Dec. 22, 2014, during the Turkish leader’s visit to the Southeast Asian country. 

Prof. Dr. Orhan Atalay, a deputy from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and an Islamic scholar, also appears in the Erdoğan-Hamzah selfie.