The controversy over ‘Hunting Muhammad’: why judging a book by its cover is dangerous

In 2020, I wrote the foreword to Feby Indirani’s short-story collection Memburu Muhammad, which may be translated as Hunting Muhammad. I called my essay ‘Hunting the Writer’s Imagination’. Six years later, the book has become a subject of controversy.

A discussion of the book at Bogor Literature Week in September 2026 was cancelled after objections were raised to the title and to the event itself. The dispute then moved beyond literary circles. Police began looking into allegations of religious blasphemy against the author. The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and the Ministry of Religious Affairs also commented publicly on the controversy.