Turkey’s Erdogan gets dragged into Indonesia selfie debacle

The social media war on Felix Siauw, an Indonesian Muslim preacher who issued a fatwa claiming that taking self-portraits was a sin, has taken an international twist, with some online users posting a photo of Turkey’s president with an Indonesian official as part of their campaign against the cleric, reported the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News.

Last week, a group of Indonesian women declared a social media war on Siauw, launching the hashtag campaign #Selfie4Siauw, after the preacher issued a 17-point manifesto in which he outlined the reasons for condemning selfies, according to the website Coconuts Jakarta.

“If we take a selfie, sift through and choose our best pose, and then we’re awed and impressed by ourselves - worryingly, that’s called PRIDE,” Siauw, who has more than 1 million followers on Twitter, wrote.

“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?” he said.

According to Hurriyet Daily News, one of the photographs used in the campaign shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indonesian Deputy Parliament Speaker Fahri Hamzah in a selfie dated Dec. 22, 2014. The photo was taken during a trip by Erdogan to the Southeast Asian country.