Muslim protest march against Jakarta's Christian governor
Thousands of hard-line Muslims marched in Indonesia’s capital on Friday, calling
for the jailing of the city's minority Christian governor. Following Friday prayers,
the protesters marched from Istiqlal Mosque in central Jakarta to the nearby presidential
palace, which was under heavy police guard. Protests against Gov. Basuki ``Ahok''
Tjahaja Purnama have snowballed since September when he was accused of blaspheming
the Quran and subsequently charged. His trial is still underway.
The turnout for Friday's protest was small compared with the hundreds of thousands
who answered the call of hard-line Islamic groups to flood central Jakarta for demonstrations
in November, December and February. Jakarta police's director of traffic Ermayudi
Sumarsono estimated the crowd at 13,000 to 15,000. Police estimates are often conservative.
Earlier Friday, police said they had arrested Muhammad Al Khaththath, the leader
of the Muslim Peoples Forum umbrella group, and other four other activists for suspected
treason. Their followers said they were not deterred by the arrests.
The blasphemy case, slurs against Ahok's Chinese ethnicity and the ease with which
hard-liners attracted huge numbers of people to protest have undermined Indonesia's
reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam and shaken the secular government
as well as mainstream Muslim groups. Blasphemy is a criminal offense in Indonesia,
punishable by up to five years in prison.
Ahok will compete in a runoff election for governor next week against a former cabinet
minister backed by conservative Muslim clerics. He was popular with Jakarta's middle
class because of his drive to eliminate corruption and his efforts to make the overflowing
polluted city more livable. But demolitions of some of the slum neighborhoods that
are home to millions and ill-considered outspokenness proved to be his Achilles'
heel. Opponents seized their moment last year when a video surfaced of Ahok telling
voters they were being deceived if they believed a specific verse in the Quran prohibited
Muslims from electing a non-Muslim as leader. (Source: AP)
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