At the opening of the national meeting of clerics and the first national conference of the Islamic-based United Development Party (PPP) here on Sunday, President Jokowi as he is also called said in the past two weeks he saw contents of social media tended to be full of insults, slanders, name calling and provocative statements.
He reminded that Islam does not teach things like that. "Our religious teachings are about compassion and love. In view of that I appeal to you all to calm down the atmosphere especially in the social media. Use it for propagating religious values," he said.
Jokowi said he had so far also used social media but he has used it for entertainment, spreading jokes. He said "calls for killing each other are not Islamic and will only smear us."
He said Indonesia, as a country with the worlds biggest Moslem population, has so far been considered as having practiced democracy and good Islam at the international forum.
He reminded that Indonesia is very diverse in terms of ethnicity, religion, culture and language.
"I have always reminded about the importance of preserving our unity as a nation and called on the majority to protect the minority and the minority to respect the majority. The majority and the minority must respect each other. That is what I have always reminded," he said.
President Jokowi called on the nation to use its collective energy for settling basic problems of the country such as poverty, unemployment and inequality. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
