INDONESIA BANS ISLAMIC DEFENDERS FRONT

Wed 30 December 2020:

Indonesia has banned the controversial but politically influential hardline group the Islamic Defenders Front, the country’s chief security minister announced on Wednesday (Dec 30).

Mahfud MD said the group, widely known by its acronym FPI, had been officially outlawed, effective immediately. FPI is led by firebrand Islamic cleric Rizieq Shihab, a controversial figure in Indonesian politics, who was arrested earlier this month.

“The government has banned FPI activities and will stop any activities carried out by FPI,” Mahfud said. “FPI no longer has legal standing.”

Shihab recently returned home on Nov 10 from a three-year exile in Saudi Arabia after criminal charges including a pornography case were dropped.

Television footage showed thousands of men, women and children, many wearing white Islamic robes, chanting “God is Great” as they marched and filled a major road to the airport’s arrival gates. They halted traffic along the way to the airport.

His return in November to rapture crowds, he has called for a “moral revolution”, fuelling tension with President Joko Widodo’s administration in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

On Dec 12, the cleric turned himself in to Indonesian authorities after he was accused of inciting people to breach COVID-19 pandemic restrictions by holding events with large crowds.

The FPI was formed in 1998, setting itself up as a vigilante group and “moral guardian”, while gaining notoriety for attacks on bars and nightclubs.

It gained political prominence in 2016, as Rizieq marshalled the massive protests that led to the prosecution and eventual conviction of former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok, on charges of “blasphemy”.

Deputy justice minister, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, told reporters the FPI was outlawed because nearly 30 of its leaders, members and former members had been convicted on terrorism charges, and because the group conflicted with the nation’s state ideology, Pancasila, which stresses unity and diversity.

Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia’s population is Muslim, but the country of more than 267 million people has many followers of other religions including Christianity and and Hinduism.

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