Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Religious issues can often affect socioeconomic problems. The newest case that happened regarding this issue is the Anti-French brands’ boycott call-to-action by Muslims all over the world, especially in Indonesia. Most Muslim countries, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia, have condemned Macron’s (the current president of France) statement that leads to Islamophobia. Some countries even protested on the road and called for boycotting French brands (Siddiqui, 2020). This phenomenon follows the line of previous studies (Anderson, 2012; Maamoun and Aggrawal, 2008), which stated that boycotts among Muslim consumers are closely related to religious background. One factor that often leads to a boycott action from religious adherents is the misuse of religious matters such as symbols or icons (Anderson, 2012).
Boycotts are usually related to consumers’ decisions of declining product purchases produced by particular countries or companies (Farah and Newman, 2010). Boycott action by the nongovernment organization has become an inevitable experience by most companies (John and Klein, 2003). For those companies that have been accused of guilt about awful or unethical strategies, boycotts can be a severe problem (John and Klein, 2003). A good manager needs to consider this issue seriously since it can demote a company’s share value and reputation (Pruitt and Friedman, 1986).
Boycott call-to-action is not the first phenomenon conducted by Muslims all over the world. In the past, several boycott movements occurred. In 2005, Jyllands–Posten, a Danish daily newspaper, published 12 cartoons of Prophet Muhammad – peace be upon him – in the name of freedom of expression (Onishi, 2020). This incident triggered animosity of Muslims in Denmark, which then spread to the Danish product boycott movement in all over Middle East countries (Knight, 2009). One year later, Muslim’s animosity is propelled by Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine that republished the cartoon with the same motive, freedom of expression (Onishi, 2020). According to Jensen (2008), boycott action is a form of nonacceptance, protest and urged the performer to apologize.
Aji (2017) mentioned that religion becomes more essential in today’s era since it might direct individual overall behavior, including perception and attitude. They willingly do anything needed to preserve their religious value. Boycott is one of their efforts. Each religion must have some beliefs and taboos. In...