An Elementary Cchool in Solo Receives Complaints for Book Depicting Prophet Muhammad

A page from the book "Interesting Stories of the Prophets' Childhood," which displays a blurred illustration of the Prophet Muhammad immediately following his birth. (JG Photo/Hangga Brata)

Solo, Central Java. An elementary school in Solo has received complaints for having books in its library which display pictures of the Prophet Muhammad, which is prohibited in Islam.

Some parents have filed complaints against SD Jamsaren to the Solo office of the Religious Affairs Ministry about the book, “Interesting Stories of the Prophets’ Childhood". quote from thejakartaglobe.com

The complainants also accused the Ministry of distributing the book to the school, as evidenced by stamps in the book identifying them as donations from the Ministry in 2011. But Ahmad Nasirin, the head of the Solo office of the Religious Affairs Ministry, denied that his office circulated the books to Solo schools.

“We also object to the pictures of Rasulullah [the prophet] in the book. But most of the content is all right, and there is nothing wrong with the stories. But we will definitely withdraw the copies,” Ahmad said in Solo on Wednesday. “They were not printed in Solo but in East Jakarta in 2010,” he added.

The book contains stories about the childhood of 11 prophets, including Muhammad. There are four rather blurred illustrations of him, including when Muhammad had just been born and when he herded a flock of sheep in the desert.

“We do need to intensively call on schools and Muslim parents to more selectively pick reading for students,” Ahmad added.

Muchus Budi Rahayu, one of the parents who complained about the book, said he learned of the pictures from his child, a student of the school.

“My child told me there were pictures of Prophet Muhammad,” Muchus said. “I thought it was a joke, but after I checked, apparently it’s true. I’ve asked the school to return the books to the Religious [Affairs] Ministry because the pictures are improper,” adding that his child told him there were more than 10 copies of the book in the library.

The school, meanwhile, said the book was among hundreds of copies of other books donated by the Religious Affairs Ministry.

A representative of the school, who refused to be named, admitted that the school had immediately put the books inside the library without first reading them.