An Indonesian Cleric Caused a Massive Spike in Selfies by Declaring Selfies a Sin

Last Sunday Indonesian author and Islamic cleric Felix Siauw tweeted a 17-point manifesto decrying selfies as a sin—especially for women. According to Siauw, taking a photo of oneself is prideful, ostentatious, and arrogant. Usually such a bitter, personal screed wouldn’t count for much, but because Siauw is a respected young cleric with a massive Twitter following, his rant has severely pissed off many in Indonesia, a selfie-obsessed country whose Muslim population makes up roughly 88 percent of its citizens.

In response to Siauw’s tweets, Indonesians have started a selfie-taking campaignacross the nation’s broad and active social media platforms, inspiring (probably to the cleric’s chagrin) a host of first-time selfies out of spite. For days, the hashtag #selfie4siauw trended in Jakarta. Activists have also crawled out of the woodwork to accuse Siauw of hypocrisy, saying he recently judged a selfie contest—an allegation Siauw vehemently denies, saying he was instead giving a lecture on self-introspection. He’s provided little other comment on his initial tweets or the disproportionately massive campaign that’s risen up against them.

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