Indonesian MPs Demand Action against Islamist Vigilantes

Jakarta, Indonesia (News Today) - Indonesian lawmakers on Monday demanded the government crack down on a violent Islamist vigilante group that has threatened “war” against Christians in Jakarta and urged mosques to set up militia forces.

Parliamentarians from various parties held a press conference to demand the government outlaw the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) — a private militia with a self-appointed mission to protect “Islamic” values in the secular country.

“The only way to stop the FPI from creating anarchy is to ban it. The FPI is not registered as an official group,” lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) told reporters.

“The police, military and government should be held responsible for their role in creating the FPI. Now they’re incapable in controlling it,” she added, referring to the group’s origins in a 1990s paramilitary outfit.

The FPI warned Sunday that it was ready to wage war against Christians in the outer Jakarta suburb of Bekasi over claims of “Christianisation” of the mainly Muslim area.

After a meeting of Muslim leaders, FPI extremists urged Bekasi authorities to introduce Islamic sharia law and warned they would attack Christians with sticks, rocks and even flagpoles unless the “Christianisation” ceased.

“We won’t disturb the average Christian. But we’re against those who preach. If they try to convert Muslims to Christianity through public preaching activities, through lies and manipulation, we’ll disperse them,” FPI Jakarta branch manager Abdul Qodir Aka told AFP.

“If they stubbornly resist we’ll use violence as a last resort,” he added.

Indonesia’s two mainstream Muslim organisations, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, also attended Sunday’s Islamic forum in Bekasi. Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto dismissed calls to ban the FPI but said police should arrest anyone guilty of violence.

“The FPI is not a registered organisation, so how could we disband it?” he said. “If there’s violent action the perpetrator must be brought to justice. There’s no need to close down the organisation.” Observers said communal tensions were prone to erupt into violence in Indonesia, a constitutionally secular country of 240 million people, 90 percent of whom are Muslim.

Last week it threatened to invade the homes of two female celebrities and arrest them after they allegedly appeared in a homemade sex video that has been widely circulated on the Internet . Dozens of FPI activists protested outside police headquarters on Monday to demand the celebrities — Luna Maya and Cut Tari — be taken into custody, calling them “moral terrorists”. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population but its constitution is secular and pluralist.

Source : kompas

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