Jakarta - Indonesian police arrested nearly 40 Muslim
hardliners Wednesday for their alleged involvement in a violent
attack over the weekend against interfaith supporters.
The arrest of at least 39 supporters of Muslim hardliner group
Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) at the group's headquarters in central
Jakarta occurred without resistance, witnesses said.
Late Tuesday, Jakarta city police chief, Inspector General Adang
Firman, urged FPI to surrender its members to police by mid-night
Tuesday, or face forced arrests.
After no response from the hardliner group, police moved to the
group's headquarters to capture and arrest those wanted in the
attack.
Pressure was mounting for authorities to take legal action against
the perpetrators in Sunday's violent attack by FPI followers against
interfaith supporters that wounded at least 30 people.
The violent attack triggered condemnation from community and
religious leaders, with two of Indonesia's largest Islamic
organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)and Muhammadiyah, calling for the
perpetrators to 'be prosecuted.'
Habib Rizieq, chairman of FPI, told reporters on Wednesday that
his supporters did not resist arrest to show that he is committed to
cooperation with the police as part of taking responsibility for the
attack.
He said his supporters attacked Sunday's gathering - billed as the
National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion - because it
supported the 'deviant' Ahmadiyah minority sect.
Rizieq, who was jailed for seven months in 2004 for inciting
vandalism at entertainment spots in the capital Jakarta, had vowed on
Monday that his supporters would fight 'until our last drop of blood'
to resist attempts to arrest them.
Ahmadiyah has been a target of attacks since a government
commission recommended in April that the minority sect be outlawed.
The Indonesian Ulema Council, the country's highest authority on
Islam, has declared the Ahmadiyah sect 'heretical' for believing its
founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who died in 1908 in India, is the last
prophet, not Mohammed, whom mainstream Muslims worldwide believe was
God's final messenger.
Human rights activists and civil liberties groups argue that
followers of Ahmadiyah are protected under Indonesia's constitution,
which guarantees the right to religious freedom.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Islamic nation, nearly 88
per cent of its 225 million people are Muslims. The country has a
long history of religious tolerance.
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