Joko Breaks Silence Against ‘Malicious’ Muslim Rumors and Singapore Smears

The Jakarta Globe, Jun 03, 2014


Jakarta. Presidential candidate Joko Widodo welcomed the official support of the country’s largest Islamic organization in front of hundreds of the faith’s clerics on Tuesday, finally breaking his silence in the face of negative campaigns questioning his identity as a Muslim.

Among other imputations, mudslingers have accused Joko of not being a Muslim and of trying to lead the Muslim-majority nation away from its faith.

In a presidential election increasingly marked by open displays of piety by candidates seeking to prove their electability, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) Joko made the announcement with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) as rumors regarding his religiosity swirled. The campaign event was organized by a coalition member, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the only Islamic party to support Joko and his running mate, former Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

“When your political opponents cannot find fault in you, they resort to malicious lies,” Joko said in Kartika Chandra, South Jakarta, on Tuesday.

Joko cited a small-circulation of newspaper being spread around Islamic boarding schools across Java which alleged that Joko was a non-Muslim with parents born in Singapore.

“Near my mother’s village in Boyolali [East Java], there’s a village called Singopuran,” Joko said. “Maybe they were talking about that.”

After the event, around 300 clerics were given copies of leaflets intended for distribution among their pesantren, or Islamic schools. The layout was filled with pictures of Joko praying, on the hajj to Mecca and meeting prominent Nahdlatul Ulama leaders.

PKB central executive board chairman Marwan Jafar sought to place a lid over the rumblings over Joko’s faith.

“If Jusuf Kalla represents the structural embodiment of NU, then Jokowi is the cultural embodiment of NU,” he said, referring to Kalla’s involvement in NU as a member of its governing board.

“Jokowi is a haji who went on the hajj pilgrimage in 2003 and has gone on the umrah [minor hajj] several times,” Marwan said.



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